


A Survivor's Promise

by ArseneCG



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different Mastermind (Dangan Ronpa)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-16 05:26:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 40,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14157762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArseneCG/pseuds/ArseneCG
Summary: "I woke up here in this school for the gifted in a daze. I'm surrounded by a bunch of talented people, but I can't seem to remember my own talent. If I'm being honest with myself, there are large gaps in my memory that are gone. The more I try to discover what I'm missing, the more confusing it all becomes. I just know that I can't die here, and everyone is counting on me to get them out of here alive. I'm going to survive."





	1. Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> This is an alternate universe from the perspective of Rantaro. Some things will be different, in order to keep it fresh, but some aspects will remain the same. Also, there's only fifteen students at the start of this game, as I decided to omit Shuichi from this story. The killing game will be more interesting without an Ultimate Detective, and I wouldn't have to waste one of the first victims/blackened on him just to get him out of the story. 
> 
> Make sure to leave your feedback and thoughts if you like it! I'll try to update with more chapters as much as I can. It has been awhile since I wrote like this.
> 
> Enjoy!

"Welcome, Rantaro Amami." 

The bright words appeared on the screen of the Monopad as my finger pressed the button on the side of the tablet. It was easy to figure out how to turn it on - I was no stranger to handling these Monopads. That strange bear gave me one the first day that he trapped all fifteen of us in this school. But I was pretty surprised to see my name show up. After all, this wasn't my Monopad. At least this wasn't supposed to be mine. 

My original Monopad was sitting right next to me on my bed. But here it was. I didn't notice it at first when I started getting used to spending most of my time here in my assigned bedroom. Maybe it was here all along, and I never noticed it until now. Maybe that annoying bear slipped it in here when I was out. Doesn't matter now. 

My name showing up cemented the fact that this was supposed to be here, and this was indeed mine. I couldn't help but feel a nagging sense of dread in the back of my mind. If this was from Monokuma himself, then I was sure that this was part of his motive. Without even having to look at it, I knew that he was trying to spur me into some kind of action. He already made it clear that this game was going far too slow for his liking. I knew I should have put this new tablet away. I knew I should have shown it to the others. Kaede had been telling us to work together. But I didn't listen. I let out a small chuckle as that thought popped into my head. I was never that great at following directions.  
The screen flashed once again with a blinding white light for a second, which made me flinch for a bit. Whoever made this knew it would be uncomfortable to look at for  
whomever was waiting for something to happen. I should have expected something this irritating from Monokuma, so I wasn't completely blameless from all of this. Various letters began to form on a black background, swirling all around the screen. They were starting to form words. 

"Survivor Perk." 

Survivor Perk? What does that mean? Why do I have this?

My index finger wandered over to the speech bubble that recently appeared at the bottom left of the screen. There had to be some sort of explanation for this new "perk". This was meant for me, but I had no context to any of this. More words filled up the screen. 

"Clue to end the Killing Game." 

What? My heart skipped a beat. I read the words over and over again for a minute, unable to accept it at first. It was almost too good to be true. Would the mastermind really give me a hint to end this sick game that they were orchestrating? I highly doubted it. I was more inclined to believe that it was more of a trap than anything. I should have turned the tablet off and avoid this entire situation. I should have went directly to Kaede and the others to tell them what was given to me. I should have told them about this Survivor Perk. I should have, but I didn't. We didn't have the time. I couldn't be sure if the mastermind would keep their word when they made the threat that we would all die if a murder didn't happen in two days. That was over a day and a half ago. We only had an hour left until the deadline. 

I sighed, "No choice now."

I scrolled down to analyze the set of paragraphs that was left for me. The message read: 

"The mastermind who is behind the killing game is hiding somewhere within the academy. Your best chance of exposing them is when Monokuma needs a spare. At that time, the mastermind will go to the library's hidden room. 

To prove this hint is accurate, I will predict something. The first thing that you will remember is the Ultimate Hunt. 

Only share this infromation with people who you know you can trust. How you determine that will mean your life or your death.

\- Rantaro Amami."

Wait. No. Did I write this? I had no memory or writing this letter to myself, let alone know where and how to get to the mastermind. I would be more inclined to dismiss this message if my memory wasn't so scrambled when I woke up here in the Ultimate Academy. I could remember all of my sisters, my father that I probably resented too much, and the hobbies that I used to enjoy before I was stuck here. But it wasn't all there. There were gaps missing in between, with the biggest one being the talent that I should have great pride in. I couldn't remember my Ultimate Talent. 

If I did write this letter to myself, when did I do it? This Rantaro seems to know a lot about this academy and the game. I, on the other hand, had no clue what to do. But the old Rantaro did get something right. I remember the words "Ultimate Hunt." I had no idea what it meant, but it wasn't a completely foreign concept to me either. It was like one of those things that was on the tip of my tongue. 

Eh, forget it. I don't have the time for this.

The Rantaro in this message told me to share this letter to only people I could trust. That was pretty funny. I didn't know who I could trust. Maybe I could tell Kaede, but she would probably want to run and tell everyone else. I couldn't let the entire group know about this. The mastermind was probably one of us, and not to mention this would paint a target on my back. If you're trying to win a game, you would want to get rid of the person with an unfair advantage in their favor. Hell, I wasn't even sure if I can trust this message from the old me. There was no telling if this was actually from me in the past, or just the mastermind masquerading as me. 

It wasn't a complete loss, though. Something else in the message caught my eye. Apparently there was a hidden room in the library. The mastermind would have to go there to make more Monokumas. If this was true, then they would be going there now to follow up on their threat to end us all. I had to move. Now.

I scrolled down even more, finding map after map of the school grounds. If these maps showed absolutely everything in the school, then this could be helpful to finding the mastermind's hidden room. I stopped at the map of the library. Just as I expected, it showed the outline of the libary. However, this time it showed another room that branched off at the side that nobody had noticed. I had only ever been there a couple times. I closed my eyes, visualizing the setup of the library. If I was following what the map had said, then the secret room was...

"Behind the bookcase," I spoke aloud.

I scooped up the Survivor Perk Monopad and walked out of my dorm room. Without trying to sound cliche, time was of the essence. Monokuma had set off the alarm that played maddening music to countdown the last remaining hours in his time limit. There was less than an hour left. Everyone was going to die if I didn't catch the mastermind now. If they had to make more Monokumas, they would be going to their secret room now to do so. 

I made my way down the basement steps in a hurry. Surprisingly, I didn't see anyone else on my way there. Something was off. I should have seen at least one other person. I couldn't tell if they were all hiding and waiting for the time to expire, or planning something else entirely to fight back. Whatever they were planning wasn't going to help. I had to end this killing game myself.

I opened the front door of the library and took a step forward. I took in my surroundings. It was just a simple library, like I had seen so many times before whenever I came here. There was no one else in the room. The mastermind either hadn't shown up yet, or they were already in the room preparing out demise. I had to find a way into that room.

I analyzed the bookshelf that should have been hiding the room. All the books were neatly stacked against one another and were identical, with no space in between to add more books. Looking at it now, it was all so obvious. The rest of the library wasn't nearly as clean as this shelf. It was all so neat and placed accordingly. All, except one book. A spine of a regular book stuck out ever so slightly. If I wasn't looking for something out of place, I never would have noticed it. That had to be it. 

I grabbed the spine and tugged it towards me. The bookshelf made a mechanical noise in response, much like releasing a lock on a door. The bookshelf slide ajar slightly, telling me that I would have to manually open the rest myself. I put my hand behind the opening and pulled, and the fake shelf made its way towards me. The thing that I should have noticed the most was the large metallic door that was blocking me from entering the secret room, but that wasn't what caught my attention. From the corner of my eye, I saw a flash. It was faint but definitely there. It was towards the right of me. I turned automatically in response. 

That was a mistake. A mistake that I'll never forget. 

Another bookshelf that blocked the corner of the room had hid the scene, so I didn't notice it when I first walked into the room. A red liquid was splattered all over the corner of the library, telling a story of violence and betrayal. That same liquid was all over a shot put ball, which laid motionless on the ground. My eyes made its way to the source of the vile blood that stained the floor. A body was slumped against the shelf, the life completely drained from it. 

Tsumugi Shirogane was dead. 

It took my some time to gather everybody into the library. When I first saw Tsumugi's lifeless body in the corner, my mind reeled in absolute confusion. I couldn't force my legs to function properly, and I probably stood there for a solid minute or two before I came to my sense. I ran out of the library in a sprint, only to knock into Kaede immediately after. We both fell to the floor.

"Ouch," Kaede exclaimed as she caught her barrings on the ground. "Wait, what's wrong, Rantaro?" 

She must have noticed the worried expression on my face. I normally had a pretty good poker face. Under normal circumstances, I could fake a smile and keep a straight face. But this was anything but normal. 

"Tsumugi is... dead," I panted as I tried to regain my balance of shaky legs. "In the library."

"What the hell did you just say?!" Kaito's voice boomed to the right of me. 

I hadn't noticed him until now. I had such tunnel vision that I only noticed Kaede. She was with Kaito, Tenko, and Himiko, wandering around the basement halls. I told them what I saw, and they followed me back into the library. It's kind of self explanatory what happened next. All three of them were just as shocked as I was when they saw her body. Tenko handled it the worst as she let out a panicked scream. But it pained me to look at the defeated expression on Kaede's face. She wanted us all to stick together and beat the mastermind. She wanted us to remain friends after this whole ordeal. In a way, we all betrayed her just as much as one of us betrayed Tsumugi. 

I'm sorry, Kaede. 

"A body has been discovered! Everyone, please gather in the library!" Monokuma's voice echoed throughout the speakers of the school as his face appeared on every screen. It had replaced the obnoxious alarm that had been begging us to kill one another. He got what he wanted.This must have been what he planned. Once a certain number of people find the body, he'll announce it to everyone to make them aware. Gotta make the game fair for everyone. 

It didn't take long for everyone else to make their way to the library. They came flooding in in groups. There was a variety of expressions as they witnessed what happened.I wish I could say that everyone looked distraught and upset... But not everyone wore a sad face. With everyone just as confused as the next asking so many questions, I had to tell them the story of how I found Tsumugi. I was the one who found her first. But in my story I purposely omitted the part about the Survivor Perk, which I kept safely in my pocket. I couldn't bring any attention to it or myself. I was still playing the mastermind's game. 

"So then Rantaro killed Tsumugi!" Kokichi exclaimed with a sparkle in his eye, as if he was enjoying the whole debacle. "How could you, Rantaro?" 

"It wasn't me," I sighed, knowing full well that he was probably just saying it to get under my skin. "I just found her like this."

"Rantaro wouldn't kill anyone!" Kaede chimed in with a stern look on her face. She must have regained her resolve. "Just because he found the body first doesn't mean that he did it!" 

"Then who the fuck did, Kaedud?" Miu retorted as she glared at me. 

"Will you just be quiet for a second?" Kaede demanded, shooting her a forceful glare. 

"Why did you yell at me?" Miu's confrontational look quickly dissolved as soon as Kaede pushed back. That didn't take long. 

"As much as I pains me to agree with someone like her, she has a point," Kiyo's smooth voice filled the room. "Once of us in this room killed Tsumugi."

"And it's not looking good for Rantaro," Ryoma added without even looking at any of us.

"Hey, don't blame him straight out of the gate!" Kaito tried to defend me as well. Thanks Kaito. 

"We don't know anything for sure yet," Kaede said as she tried find the right words. "Maybe the mastermind did it, and is trying to frame one of us."

Even now Kaede believed in all of us. She was still under the impression that the mastermind and the students here were not one and the same. No, I knew Kaede was smarter than that. She knew. She just didn't want to admit it to herself.

"You're just salty that one of us did it," Kokichi said. "After all that talk about being friends with one another and working together, you just can't admit that Rantaro finally snapped and murdered someone." 

"I didn't kill anyone," I said. I had enough of the blame game. We were getting nowhere with this. I was going to say more, but then I saw a black shadow move underneath us. It didn't take us long to realize who it was.

"Monokuma!" Tenko got into her familiar fighting stance that she always showed off. "The culprit always returns to the seen of the crime!"

"Hey, it hurts that you think I would do something so cruel," Monokuma faked sadness as he tilted his head down in shame. "But it wasn't me that did this, even if I wanted to. I'm just relieved that a murder took place just before the time ran out." 

"Don't lie to us," Himiko said as she glared at the bear. "Or I'll cast a spell on you and make you tell us the truth!"

"It's against the rules for me to interfere like that," Monokuma said in triumph. "Check the rules again if you need to. I wrote them write there in your Monopads. It's not my fault that you can't read."

"Why are you here?" I asked as I crossed my arms. "With all these cameras around this place, you know who did it. So there has to be a reason why you're here."

"I just wanted to see that fresh despair on your faces myself in person," he exclaimed. I noticed that he was hiding something behind his back. "But's that not all! I'm here to hand out the Monokuma File for... ah... what's her name over there? I keep forgetting. She looked so plain and forgettable."

"Monokuma File?" Keebo had a hint of confusion in his voice.

"Yep," Monokuma showed us another tablet that he was hiding. "It gives you some important information that you're going to need for the class trial."

"Class trial?" I asked him almost immediately. The words were so natural to me. It was bizarre. I had no idea of what these class trials were, but it wasn't the first time those words escaped my mouth. "What do you mean by class trial?" 

"I'll explain that later," Monokuma quickly brushed me off. "But you're going to have to find out who the blackened is! You all better hurry, because the clock is ticking."

"Wait!" Kaito tried to get the weird bear's attention once again, but as soon as Monokuma placed the newest Monopad in my hands, he left the room at a speed I could barely comprehend. 

"He can't make us do this," Himiko pouted with clear signs of frustration plastered on her face. 

"We have no choice," I responded. "Remember what Monokuma told us before? If we don't find the blackened, then he said something about us being punished. Knowing him, that's probably not a good thing."

"Then I shall just ask Atua," Angie eyes closed as she glasped her hands above her in a strange pose. "Atua has spoken. He is telling me that Rantaro did it."

"I knew it!" Kokichi's voice was more excited than it should have been.

"Let's not point fingers just yet," Kaede said. 

"If we go into this with someone in mind, then we'll never found out who did it," I quickly added on as I held up the Monokuma File. "Let's look at what this says first."

"Um, shouldn't we not let the number one suspect hold onto important evidence?" Kokichi questioned, giving me a stern look. "He'll just tamper with it to throw us off."

"As much as I hate to agree with this idiot," Maki never even opened her eyes, but I could still feel her harsh gaze on me, "he's right about this. If Rantaro killed Tsumugi, he's going to try to sabotage us in any way that he can."

As much as I wanted to dismiss that little troublemaker, he had a point. Since I was known for a fact to be the first one to find Tsumugi, and I was alone when I did, I was the prime suspect. They couldn't trust me. I couldn't even trust myself half the time, so I couldn't blame them. I wouldn't let me touch the Monokuma File if I was in their situation.

"Fine," I sighed as I held out the Monokuma File towards Kaede. "Then we'll give it to someone that we all can trust. Kaede can read it out loud, with everyone watching her, and then we'll upload it to everyone's Monopads later. If what she says doesn't match up to what we read later, then we know that someone tampered with it." 

"What?" Kaede looked a little shocked and confused. "Me?"

"I think out of everyone here, you're the one that everyone trusts the most," I explained to her. "This is the best way. Otherwise we'll be wasting too much time trying to figure this out before we even investigate this place." 

"Yeah, Rantaro's right," Kaito agreed. "You're the only one that we would let handle it. We can't spend all this time fighting each other." 

The others nodded their heads in approval.

"Ah... Okay," Kaede stuttered as she grasped onto the Monokuma File in my hand. 

I believe in you, Kaede. Without you, we would all fall apart. 

"Ugh... Fiiiiiiiiiiine," Kokichi moaned, knowing he was outnumbered. "Just keep your hands where I can see them. They say the nice ones are always the most suspicious!"

I'm fairly sure that no one has ever said that, but we all knew better then to listen to him at this point. There was work to be done. Kaede's hand moved across the Monokuma File as she read out loud the details for everyone to hear. 

"The victim is Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer," Kaede started. "The victim's body was discovered in the library. The estimated time of death is 9:10 p.m. The victim was subjected to blunt force trauma to the back of the skull... resulting in cranial fractures and immediate death. No other injuries were detected."

There was a moment of silence among all fourteen of us in the room when she finished speaking. I think it finally hit all of us the urgency of the situation. One of us was dead. Somebody that was talking and sharing this experience with us not even an hour ago. Somebody that we all knew. I will say that I was kind of suspicious of Tsumugi; she was too plain for her own good. But that didn't mean the she deserved to die. Anyway, it was obvious now that she wasn't the mastermind. The game was still going. 

"Ahhh," Kiibo was the first to break the silence. "What do we do now?"

"May I suggest that we examine the corpse?" I could feel Kiyo's smile from underneath the mask. "We'll be able to discover all we need once we gaze upon the natural beauty of the corpse."

"He's... has a point," I spoke, agreeing with the investigation part, but not so much of the joy in Kiyo's voice. "We need to start investigating. We should all search for as many clues as possible." 

"Yeah," Kaito's voice boomed as he took control of the situation. "We're not going to get anywhere by standing here, doing nothing! Let's find some clues."

"As novice investigators," Kiibo explained, "logic dictates that we work together rather than give in to paranoia."

"Yeah, I was just about to say that," Kaito stammered for a second. "In fact, I was just about to say that exact same thing!" 

"If that is what everyone desires," Kirumi finally spoke as she listened to the needs of the group, "then I shall give this task my all."

"Before we all split up into groups, I would like to make a suggestion" I said as looked around the room and acknowledged the resolve of our rag tag group. "I think we should have two people stay close to the body, like bodyguards. This way no one can tamper with the evidence." 

"That's a good idea," Kokichi eyes sparkled again. "You won't be able to get rid of any evidence if we have someone watching you."

He was trying to get under my skin. I simply put on one of my fake smiles, hiding my irritation for the moment. I tried not to give him the satisfaction.

"I suggest that Tenko and Kirumi guard the body," I responded as I crossed my arms. I thought about using Gonta, but he wouldn't hurt a fly. "Kirumi has a keen eye, and Tenko is the muscle." 

"As much as I hate listening to a degenerate male," Tenko scowled towards me. Thanks for that, Tenko, " my Neo-Akido skills are designed to stop any MALE with malicious thoughts, and it's obvious that males are the only ones violent enough to murder. I'll do it."

"Do not fret," Kirumi reassured me in her nurturing tone. "I will do any task that you would like me to do."

"Then it's decided!" Kaito looked to rally the group once again. "There's no way we'll die here. You guys have me, Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars, on your side!"

With Kaito's heroic words, everyone seemed to scatter in different groups. Some stayed in the library, while others left to go investigate elsewhere. That was probably a good idea. I doubted that the details of this murder we just confined to this room. While everyone was shuffling around the room to look for clues, I glanced over to Kaede, who was staring at the ground. She still wore that sad expression on her face. She was still in disbelief that a murder took place, even after everything she did for us. In a way, I felt guilty. I wasn't any help in trying to lift the moral of the group. If anything, I just locked myself in my room all day, and spent minimal time with everyone. Paranoia will do that to you. Maybe if I tried my best to lift everyone's spirits, like she had tried to do, none of this would have happened. Maybe I could have seen it coming. 

Stop it, Rantaro. There's no time for all this self pity. There's a lot of work to be done, and I wasn't entirely sure I could even do it all. You have to live. No matter what.  
Here goes.

"Hey, Kaede," I sent a reassuring smile towards her. "Would you want to investigate together? I don't really know what I'm doing, so I would appreciate your help."

She was taken aback at first, "But I don't really know how to do this either."

"Then we'll help each other," I chuckled. "Two heads are better than one."

"Alright," she responded as she gained a more confident posture. "Let's do it together."

The game was on. 

"Let's start with the body," I suggested as we both knelled next to Tsumugi. "We might find something new that wasn't in the Monokuma File." 

I examined the body of our friend. All the life had been drained from her, but I guess that was more in my head than anything. She had been dead for less than an hour, so she still had color in her skin. Red blood was splattered on the ground beneath her and on the shotput ball that was laying right next to her. That's what initially caught my head.

"What's this shotput ball doing here?" Kaede asked, probably for both me and herself. "It's covered in blood."

"This shouldn't be here, huh?" I responded. "Judging from the looks of it, it's safe to assume that this was the murder weapon."

"The Monokuma File said that she died from blunt force trauma to her head."

That was easier than I thought. At least we're getting somewhere, but we were far from being on track to the suspect. There had to be more here. Maybe there was a clue somewhere on Tsumugi. I didn't really want to touch her; I felt it was kind of disrespectful. She was one of us. I would just check her pockets for now. If we need to go any further, I'll let Kaede do it. 

First, I stuck my hand in her right side pocket. There was nothing inside of it except for a white handkerchief. Had Tsumugi always had this on her? Thinking back, I never did see her use a handkerchief while she was in her. Maybe she had bad allergies from time to time? My youngest sister suffered from bad allergies whenever we went on vacation, so she always had one of these type of handkerchiefs on her. 

Okay, how about the other side? I felt something. It felt like a small piece of plastic. I immediately retracted my hand once I get got a grip on it. Looking into my head, I noticed that it was some sort of receiver of some kind. There were no buttons, but there was a small bulb on top of it. 

"What's this?" 

"It looks like some sort of receiver," Kaede asked as she eyed the piece of plastic in my hand. 

"To what exactly?" 

Out of instinct I decided to stand up. That's when it hit me. Or rather, that same flash of light that blinded me when I tried opening to door to the secret room. This time the source of the light had come from in front of me. Kaede and I both looked forward, where the light had come from. 

"Is that a camera?" I questioned as I blinked a few times to get rid of my blurry vision. 

A small camera was hidden among the various books, taped down onto the shelf. It was so meticulously hidden that I wouldn't have even noticed it if it wasn't for that bright beam that shot from it every now and then. That was the source of the light from before. It was a camera's flash. 

"Rantaro, look."

Kaede brought my attention to the receiver in my hand. The small bulb on top of it was glowing red, signaling that something had just happened to set it off. Did the camera taking a picture alert the receiver just now? There had to be more.

I looked up, towards the very top of the bookshelf. There it was. Some sort of motion sensor was aimed down towards us, catching our every move. That must have been what alerted the receiver. Somehow the receiver, the sensor, and the camera were all connected. 

"There's a motion sensor up there," I pointed out to Kaede. "From the looks of it, every time the motion sensor picks up movement, it sets off the receiver and the camera takes a picture." 

"Buy why is the camera not taking pictures now?" 

As soon as she said that, we were blinded once again by the light of the camera. It had only been a small window of time since the last flash, but it was still a noticeable gap.

"It must be on some sort of timer of some kind," I concluded as the watched the receiver sparkle once again in my hand. 

"Maybe there's a set interval between when the camera can take picture?" Kaede speculated as she closely examined the camera covered in tape. 

"That would explain that first flash I saw when I went to open the secret door," I spoke as a folded my arms and brought my hand under my chin in deep thought. "The sensor caught the movement of me opening the door, and took a picture."

"About that," Kaede said as she spun around to look at me. "How did you even know there was a secret door there? No one else noticed it until you told us just a couple minutes ago."

Crap. I was hoping no one would notice that small detail that I purposely left out of my explanation. I still had yet to tell anyone about the Survivor Perk and the map of the school that was delivered to me. The only reason I knew about that secret room to the mastermind was because of the information in the Survivor Perk. I wanted to tell Kaede right here and now about it, but the voice of reason in my head urged against it. I had no idea what the perk meant myself, let alone trusting it with another person. Plus it wouldn't help my case since I was the number one suspect right now. No one would trust the guy with complete information about the school. I would tell her later. If I didn't die by then. With a lucky glance, I noticed something underneath the hidden bookshelf that I didn't notice before.

"Look," I pointed towards the floor beneath the fake bookshelf. "There are scuffs on the floor near the shelf, which only really happens when something keep sliding against it. I spent some time the other day looking for what caused it, until finally I settled on the bookshelf." 

"You're pretty perceptive, Rantaro," Kaede said as she studied the shelf. "I never would have noticed that right away."

Neither did it, but I was satisfied that the lie bought me some more time. Even if Kaede didn't believe me, she stopped pressing the issue almost instantly, so that was good enough for me. I would have to be more careful with my secrets from now on. The flash of the camera blinded us once again.

"You get the camera," Kaede suggested as she went towards the ladder halfway across the room. "I'll get that motion sensor down. Maybe it'll lead us to more clues." 

Good thinking, Kaede. I held the camera in my hands, closely examining it before removing the tape. It was an old disposable camera, that used film to take pictures. There was no way to preview the photos that you took until you developed them. That also meant that it was impossible for the camera to hold a flash on it own without the button being held down. At closer inspection, I noticed that the button for the flash was purposely taped down. 

Why? Whoever hid the camera here obviously did not want it being seen, otherwise they wouldn't have gone through all the trouble of hiding it among the books. The flash would just alert anyone to its presence, which it did when I went to the secret door. That would defeat the whole purpose of it. 

"Rantaro, I found something," Kaede called my name from the ladder. "These look like more scuffs on the ground. They lead to where you're standing." 

My eyes followed where she was pointing her finger. She was right. There were scuff marks leading from the ladder to my location, like someone tried to move it from one spot to another in a fast motion. 

"You're right," I said as I studied the marks. "These marks weren't always here, were they?" 

"No, they weren't," Kaede huffed as she tried to move the ladder, which resisted her at every movement. "Geez, the wheels on this ladder are really stuck. It's hard to move it anywhere, but it's doable." 

"But you would need that ladder to reach the top of the shelves," I summarized as I kept my hand on my chin. "By moving it slowly on the floor, you wouldn't cause that much damage. But if you slid it on the floor in a hurry, it would definitely leave some wear and tear."

After Kaede struggled slightly to get the ladder to the corner of the room, she quickly made her way upwards, towards the top of the shelf. I made sure to keep my gaze fixated on the ground. Kaede was wearing a skirt, but neither of us seemed to remember this when we made this plan. I could feel my cheeks get a little red from embarrassment, keeping my head down. 

"Hey, Rantaro," Kaede called down to me, her voice echoing from the top. "There's something weird with this top shelf."

"What's up?" I was still unsure of where to put my gaze. I wanted to see what she was talking about, but my own embarrassment got the better of me. I kept my sight on the floor. This was a weird situation. 

"I see this sensor here on the top shelf," Kaede went on, "but there a small gaps in the books. It's a space that's about three or four books wide, if they were there."

Things were getting stranger. By all means, that space shouldn't be there. Every space on these shelves of the entire library were completely stuffed with various books. There were so many that there were stacks on top of tables and the floors. Even the top of the shelves were a mess of books scattered throughout the top. It was a mess, with barely enough space to even put a book back in its place once you took it out. 

That's why it was so weird. 

There shouldn't be a gap in between books like that, especially on the top shelf of all places. Not a gap that clean anyway. If someone were to take a book out, the others surrounding it would naturally fall in its place. Someone would have to arrange it like that to keep that space open.

"Wait a minute," Kaede gasped slightly as she looked around the library from the top of the ladder. "There are more of these senors scattered around the library. There are two more, over there."

"There are more?" I asked as I turned around and followed where Kaede instructed me. "This... isn't the only one?"

She was right. I found two more sensors throughout the library, and with those sensors, I found a camera that was paired with it. In total, there were three sensors and three cameras. However, the other cameras didn't flash when I went near them. Did they even work, or were they just here for show? Just to throw us off from the actual camera?

"Do these even work?" I asked out loud as I examined each camera in my hands. "It would be great if I could see these pictures."

"I could help with that," a familiar voice rang behind me. Kaede and I jumped slightly, and we both let out a small gasp as we turned out, startled by whoever snuck up behind us. It was that annoying stuffed bear again.

"Monokuma?" Kaede said with a stern inflection in her voice. "What are you doing here?"

"Yeah," I added on. "I thought you would be laughing at us right now in a hidden room while we all squirmed looking for clues." 

"Oh, I was," he giggled as he jumped gleefully. "But I heard your wish, and like a genie I came... as in to your location."

What? Was he joking right now?

"Anyway, I can get you those pictures before the trial starts."

"Why help us out?" I questioned him. "What do you get out out of showing us these pictures? They could show us the killer."

"I have to make this game fair," Monokuma responded. "Besides, I don't think you're going to see what you want to see in these photos. Just make sure you have a reward for your generous headmaster when he gets back. I take cash and/or credit" 

And just like that, he scurried out of the room as fast as he came. I was hung up on his words, though. What did that mean by 'not seeing what we want to see'? I was beginning to doubt these photos now. We were putting too much faith in seeing the killer within these pictures. If it was that simple, I'm sure Monokuma wouldn't give them up so easily. Then I heard a small shriek from Kaede and I heard a small thump from behind me. What just happened?

"Kaede?" 

I turned around, seeing Kaede on the ground and rubbing her head as she winced in annoyance. 

"Ow," she groaned slightly as she looked up at me. "I just tripped on something."

My eyes darted around the floor, looking for whatever caused her to fall on the ground like that. It had to be something that made her lose her balance so easily. Then my attention was immediately caught by something that was out of place. It was a billiard ball that had rolled towards me, that wasn't there before. This would explain how Kaede fell so easily. She must not have watched her step, and this sent her falling down. 

"I think I found what tripped you up," I said as I knelled down and picked up the ball that should have been on a pool table. "What's a billiard ball doing in the library?" 

"That... shouldn't be here," she responded as she stood up and brushed off the dust that had collected on her skirt. "There's a pool table in the Rec Room. Shouldn't that ball be there."

"Yeah," I let the word linger slightly as I kept my gaze on solid white ball in my hand. "It wouldn't be so weird if we found it in the Rec Room. But the library?" 

"This can't be a coincidence," Kaede suggested. "Maybe we should investigate the Rec Room. There has to be another clue there."

"That's what I was thinking."

It didn't take us long to get to the Rec Room. After all, it was right across the hall from the library. There were two entrances into the room, but the door adjacent to the left-hand library entrance was locked, so Kaede and I had to use the front door. Nobody else seemed to be investigating the place. 

"Oh, I forgot to tell you something," Kaede's eye lit up as she remembered something important. "It was the reason why a bunch of us were already gathered in the basement."

"You're right," I said as I crossed my arms. "I was wondering why you, Kaito, Tenko, and Himiko were already down here in the basement when I ran to go get all of you."

"It's because Kaito gathered us all down into the Rec Room," Kaede explained. "There were more than just the four of us that you saw. He was gathering a bunch of people he thought could stand a chance in order to fight back Monokuma once the time limit ran out. He called it a 'War Meeting,' or something like that."

That was why the hallways were so empty when I was making my way to the library to stop the mastermind the first time. Kaito must have gathered a good sized portion of the fifteen of us into some sort strategy meeting. Their plan was to physically fight all those Monokumas, though? It was never going to work; it was more of a suicide mission than anything else. But it was either fight back, or give into Monokuma and kill someone else. Looks like someone caved in. 

"Wait," I interupted. "Kaito called you into the meeting to help fight?"

"I'm a lot stronger than I look!" Kaede scolded as she pointed as finger towards me, obviously insulted by my remark. "Playing piano really builds up the muscles in your arms."

I didn't mean to insult her. Oops. I have to stop thinking out loud like that.

"I didn't mean it like that," I chuckled as I waved my hands in front of me, trying to hid the red glow of my cheeks. "I just mean that there are a lot of other people here that come into mind when I think of fighters."

"Like I said, it wasn't just the four of us," Kaede said as she brought her finger to her bottom lip, deep in thought. "It was me, Kaito, Tenko, Maki, Gonta, Angie, and Himiko."

"Wait a second," I interrupted again. "What was Himiko doing there?"

It was true that Kaede could possibly help out with their plan, but Himiko was another story. She was half the size of everyone else, and claimed that all of her magic tricks were real. She was by no means a fighter, even in such a stressful situation we found ourselves in. 

"We kind of had to invite her to the meeting," Kaede confessed. "Kaito and I found her with Tenko upstairs in the classroom before the basement stairs, and they were a packaged deal. We couldn't have one without the other."

"What were they doing hanging around in that classroom?" 

"They wouldn't say for sure. They even looked a little nervous when we found them there. They were kind of reluctant to leave at first, but Kaito was able to convince them." 

"That... sounds a little suspicious," I chimed as I placed my hand on my chin. "What time was that?"

"Um..." Kaede thought for a moment. "I would say like half an hour before we found the body." 

So they were in the classroom upstairs at least half an hour before I even discovered the body? I doubted they were the ones who committed the murder, though. There would be no point in working together in a game like this; I already came to that conclusion as soon as I read the rules. Only one person can gain the perks of being the blackened. The accomplice would get nothing out of helping someone else out in this game. Only the blackened is able to leave. 

But they were there for a reason, I surmised that much.

"We'll have to talk to them about that later," I concluded as I began to look around the room. "We need to start investigating this room before time runs out." 

I knew I needed to investigate the pool table first. After all, I needed to see if the blue billiard ball did indeed belong come from the Rec Room and not somewhere else. It was hard to tell if a ball was missing at first glance. All of the balls were scattered around the table, making it difficult to see if something was out of place. Was that done on purpose?

"Hey, Kaede," I called out, my sight not leaving the pool table. "Can you hand me that triangle over there? If there is a ball missing, we'll be able to see right away."

"Oh, okay," Kaede said as she handed me the pool triangle from across the table. 

I gathered all the billiard balls from around the table, and placed them into the triangle one-by-one. Just as I predicted, there was still a single space left after I put the final ball in place. It was missing one ball. 

"Just like I thought," I said out loud as I analyzed the open space. "There's a ball missing from here." 

"Then that means that ball we found in the library belongs in the Rec Room," Kaede announced as she glanced towards me. "The only thing is, why was the ball in the library?"

That questioned lingered in my mind, too. That ball was out of place in the library, but it was small enough to miss if you weren't looking for it. It was only luck that Kaede slipped on it and brought it to our attention. Was that billiard ball always there, though? Or did someone put it there after the murder? I had a nagging feeling in my gut telling me that this bit of information would be important for the class trial. 

As I leaned on the pool table, putting most of my weight on the side, I glanced upwards for a moment. A door to a side room caught my attention almost right away. That must be where the locked door we discovered earlier lead to.

"There's another room in here?" I asked Kaede.

"Yeah, that leads to a theater room," she responded. "There's a projector in there, and a shelf full of different movies and documentaries."

"And a door that leads directly to the side entrance of the library," I added on. "Let's look in that room for a second. I want to see if that door in there is locked on both sides."

Just as Kaede said, it was just a small room with a large screen to project various images on, and a couch place right in front so someone could relax as they watched. There was a wall of countless movies, documentaries, and everything you could think of on one wall. But that wasn't what I was here for. I walked directly to the door to my right, and inspected it as I stopped in front of it. It looked like a regular door to me. 

I grasped the handle of the sliding door and slightly pushed to the side. It didn't move right away, but it wasn't because it was locked. No, it felt more like the door was jammed. That's why it wouldn't open up on the other side. I firmly grabbed the door handle once again, this time lifting the door up as I pulled it to the side. That did the trick, but the door still only opened up a crack. It was big enough to stick my hand through, but not nearly large enough for a person to walk in and out through it. 

"That's weird," I announced as I tried to shove the door open more. "It doesn't open any more than this."

"It would be impossible for someone to go through that crack," Kaede summarized as she inspected the door with me. "But you can see one of the library doors. It's right across from here."

"You have clear sights into the library, if both doors are open," I spoke aloud. "If both doors are open, you can see straight to the bookshelf next to the body, the one that had the camera with the flash." 

"Do you think that someone could have found a way to murder Tsumugi from here?" 

"Don't know for sure," I said as I crossed my arms. "It's definitely a possibility, but it would have been difficult to pull off all the way from here." 

Think this through for a second, Rantaro. If the culprit used this room in some way to kill Tsumugi, how did they do it? They could only open up the Rec Room door a few inches, if that. They wouldn't be able to walk in and out of this room, so they would be forced to enter the Rec Room from the front door. If the Rec Room was used in some way, they would have had to have been in there from the first place without drawing any suspicion... The War Meeting.

"Kaede," I finally broke my concentration for a moment. "During your strategy meeting, did anybody come back here?" 

"Ummm," Kaede thought for a second. "Now that you mention it, I didn't really remember if anyone came in and out of this room. The only thing that comes to mind was when Gonta kept wandering back here."

"Gonta came back here?"

"Yeah, he kept saying something about watching a bug documentary during the meeting," Kaede paused for a second once the words escaped her mouth. "You don't think that Gonta killed Tsumugi, do you?"

"I'm not saying anything just yet," I reassured her, "but if I'm being honest, things are starting to point towards him." 

"Gonta..."

The more I investigated this place, the more unsure I became of the whole thing. Clues around me were starting to paint a clearer picture... and that was the problem. Was it really so simple? Did Gonta throw the shotput ball through this door, into the library, and hit Tsumugi in the back of the head? Even though he had a lot of heart, he wasn't the most intelligent person here. He would naturally leave a lot of evidence behind. But would he even be able to come up a plan like this in the first place? 

"Howdy, partner," a black and white blur moved across the floor and stopped directly in front of me. "I reckon you want these here pictures? I ran all the way from the saloon to give 'em to ya."

It was Monokuma once again, and this time he was sporting a brown cowboy hat. Maybe that's why he was talking with a southern draw out of nowhere? He was an odd one. An envelope was in his paws, presumably the photos he said he would bring to me. 

"Why are you talking like that?" I asked him, knowing full well that he probably did not even have a reason to to begin with.

"Like what, partner? This is how we settle things out here in these parts."

"Ugh, never mind," I pressed my index finger and thumb in between my eyes out of frustration. "Are those thing pictures that you said you would develop?"

"Yep!" Monokuma's accent dropped for a moment and he went back to normal. "But I have to say that these pictures are only for you, Randy."

Randy?

"Why just me?"

"Phuhuhuhuhu, I can't tell yoooooooouuuu," Monokuma teased. "You can show them off to your heart's content after you go through them yourself." 

Was... was this some sort of hint? I didn't have time to think about this right now. I needed to see those pictures right away. It could show us who the killer was, and maybe I wouldn't have to suspect Gonta anymore. I snagged the envelope from him hands and quickly tore it open.

"Geez, not even a thank you for all my hard work," Monokuma sighed. "What about that reward that I was promised?"

"We didn't promise you anything!" Kaede retorted as she glared at him. 

"How about a small kiss from the pretty lady?" Monokuma furrowed his eyes towards Kaede in a devilish. 

"No. Going to. Happen." 

Smart move, Kaede. 

"Fine," Monokuma looked like he was about to cry. "Just wait 'til I'm gone, then you'll miss me!"

And just like that he scurried away again, out the door faster than Kaede and I could comprehend. Like I said, he was a strange one. But what he said was bothering me. He said that he had to deliver the pictures to me first, before anyone else could see them. It was then up to me to show the pictures off to everyone else, if I wanted to. That fact didn't sit right with me. There had to be a specific reason why Monokuma absolutely had to give the pictures to me first. 

"See anything?" Kaede asked as I held my gaze towards theopened envelope in my hands. 

I shook my head slightly, coming back to reality and out of my own head. I didn't have time to dwell on that fact right now. I had to keep moving forward for now, but I'm going to make sure I keep Monokuma's words in the back of my mind during the trial. Besides, Kaede was waiting to see the pictures herself. I started to flip through the photos.

The first set of photos was from the camera that faced the front entrance of the library. The pictures that were taken was when I entered the library, when I left to get everyone, when I went back with Kaede and the others, and when everyone else made their way to the library after the body discovery announcement. None of these pictures would be helpful for the trial. If anything, they were more damning to prove that I was the culprit. 

The next couple photos that were taken from the camera on top of one of the bookshelves, that looked down towards the rear entrance of the room. 

"Wait, what?" I gasped as I took a glance at the first picture of the third and final set. "Tsumugi is in these pictures." 

"She is?" Kaede asked as she jumped next to me and leaned on my shoulder to get a better look. "By herself."

The first picture was rather confusing, to say the least. It showed Tsumugi walking into the room from the side door of the library, a shotput ball in her left hand as she opened the door. She... she was holding the murder weapon before she died? We found the shotput ball covered in blood next to the body when we found Tsumugi. We had assumed that it was the murder weapon, since the Monokuma File stated that she died from blunt force trauma. If she was the one who was originally holding the shotput ball, does that mean it was taken from her to use against her before her death? But something else in the picture caught my attention. 

Tsumugu was smiling.

"She's... smiling,"I pointed out to Kaede as we examined the picture together. 

She wore a smile that practically went from ear to ear, showing her pleasure in whatever she was about to do. It wasn't a normal smile that someone has whenever their happy. It was way more... sinister. Even her eyes were telling a dark story of their own. I could tell at first glance that she was planning something.

"She looks really... weird," Kaede stammered as she tried to find the right words. "The way she's smiling is starting to weird me out." 

She must have been really focusing on her own thoughts, because she started to move in closer to me, pressing lightly against me. I tried my best to focus on the case and hid the bright shade of embarrassment that was forming on my cheeks. I'm not great with these kind of things. Keep your calm composure, Rantaro.

I flipped to the next set of photos, from the camera that was hidden in the bookshelf at the corner of the room. It was a continuation from the last picture, with Tsumugi inching closer to the camera. She didn't look nearly as confused as I was when I first discovered the existence of the camera. It was almost as if she knew that the camera was there the entire time.

"The, ahhh, n-next picture is even weirder," I stuttered slightly as I went to the next picture. "It's completely black."

The next picture from this set was completely dark. There was nothing but a solid black hue on the square where there should have been another image. Did the camera malfunction and take a bad picture? No, that was highly unlikely, because the picture after that was clear. It was another image of Tsumugi, leaning directly into the camera of the lense. She still wore that demonic smile as it looked like she was messing around with the camera. The shotput ball that was once in her hands was gone.

"That doesn't make any sense," Kaede added, still pressing against me. "If the camera broke and was starting to take blank pictures, why is the next photo so clear?"

"Maybe the camera was never broken," I responded in a hushed tone as I brought my hand to my chin in deep thought. "After these pictures of Tsumugi, there are a couple pictures of me at the bookcase and finding the body, along with a pictures of all of us discovering Tsumugi and the camera."

"But there's still something really weird in these pictures," Kaede said as she finally regained her own personal space. "Or maybe it what's not in the pictures. We never saw anyone else enter the library between the pictures of you and Tsumugi."

She was right. I was hoping that these photos would capture the criminal in the act, telling us who exactly murdered Tsumugi, but it wasn't so simple. I had a feeling nothing like that would turn up before I even opened the envelope. Monokuma had already said before that we wouldn't find what we thought we were going to in these pictures. He wasn't wrong.

"If anything, it's looking like Tsumugi was the one looking suspicious in these pictures," I pondered aloud as I continued to study each picture. "If she wasn't the one that was killed, I would be inclined to think that she was the culprit." 

Then a loud ringing noise abruptly filled the entire school, echoing through the intercom system. I brought my gaze to the television set in the room, which suddenly flickered on and was brought to life. The familiar image of the despair-inducing bear filled the screen. Monokuma seemed to be lounging in a chair, that same wide smile plastered on his face. 

"Alright! it's time for what you've all been waiting for- the class trial! "Monokuma laughed as he spun around in the chair. "Please assemble in front of the Shrine of Judgment in the courtyard! Remember that red door surrounded by plants? It's just in the other side. From there, you'll be escorted to a delightful class trial! Puhuhuhu! See you all there!" 

The television set went dark, signaling the end of his broadcast. He said whatever he needed to say. He got his message across. We were out of time. The game was on.

"I guess we're out of time to keep investigating," Kaede said as she glanced towards to floor. I could tell she was beginning to feel nervous. 

“Don’t worry,” I chuckled as a brought a warm smile her way. “I think we found enough. I’m sure we can find all the answers we need during the class trial. After all, we still have to see what everyone else discovered.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Kaede smiled as she met my gaze, “As long as we all work together, we can beat the mastermind!”

That’s the spirit, Kaede. If you of all people lost confidence before we even started the class trial, then we would all be in big trouble. Her optimism might make her a gigantic target in this game, to not only the other students but to also the mastermind. I doubt the mastermind would want us all to work together. No, they gain the upper hand if we are fighting one another. But the mastermind started to show their weakness the past two days. They were trying to force a killing among us by threatening to kill all of us if we didn't murder someone. Whoever the mastermind was, they were getting nervous. If we were going to beat the mastermind and get out of here alive, we would need to work together. I needed to keep Kaede safe and in the game to do that. She was probably the most important one here.

Kaede and I made our way outside and into the courtyard. All fourteen of us had been to this courtyard so many times before during our stay at this school, but none of us had ever been able to open the large red door leading to a glass dome. It had always been locked. Believe me, I tried getting in there whenever I investigated the school grounds. But that wasn’t the case this time. I was able to easily open the doors now, seemingly unlocked by Monokuma’s announcement of the trial. 

The dome was rather large inside, surrounded by plants that were slowly overtaking the man-made structures there. A Monokuma statue was placed at the center of the room. A waterfall was running behind the statue, filling the room with an almost calming noise. Entering the dome, it seemed like Kaede and I were the last ones to get there. 

“So,” Kaito finally broke the silence of the group, “this is the Shrine of Judgment...

“Careful, everyone!” Gonta grunted as he took as confident step forward. “If bad things happen, get behind Gonta!”

“Then gimme a piggy-back ride!” Angie sang, swaying side to side. “C'mon, carry me.”

“Omigod, you are so fucking annoying,” Miu shouted. “So are we doin' the class trial here of what?”

“No,” Ryoma announced as he brought his hat closer to his eyes, “Monokuma made is sound like we'd be guided somewhere from here.”

“But Monokuma is nowhere to be seen,” Kirumi brought up as she started to look around her surroundings.” What's going on...?”

As soon as Kirumi’s words escaped her mouth, the ground started to shake violently. I started to lose my balance as the word around me started to spin. A loud noise started to erupt from the statue, almost like a mechanical system was starting up and moving below us. 

“Wha- What!?” Kaede shouted as we all stood in awe.

The statue of Monokuma began to sink into the ground, disappearing before our very eyes. The waterfall in front of us started to sputter in irregular patterns, and began to part in the middle. There... was a door hiding behind the waterfall. I didn’t notice it until the waterfall began to subside. It was a door to an elevator. 

“Is this... an elevator?” Kaede asked outloud as the ground finally started to become still once again.

“Does he want us to board it?” Keebo questioned as he eyed the now open elevator. 

“I don't wanna...” Himiko yawned. “I don't do scary rides.”

“Stay behind, then,” Maki coldly announced as she took a step towards the elevator door. “Though I'm sure that'll just be worse for you in the end.”

“However,” Kirumi began, “if everyone wishes to run away, I will cooperate as well.” 

“That's probably not a good idea,” Ryoma summarized as he walked behind Maki. “There's nowhere to run. As long as that End Wall exists, escape's not an option.”

“It'll be fine...” Kaede chimed in with a confident smile on her face. “Let's all work together.”

“Heh, I wouldn't be able to call myself a man if I was still scared after hearing a girl say that,” Kaito boomed, trying to reclaim his role as our leader. “Bring it! I’ll show them how I, Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars, live!”

“Don't you mean "die"?” Kokichi laughed slyly. 

“Don't say something all ominous like that!” Kaito yelled, clearly annoyed with our troublemaker. 

“Ngaaaaah! We've come so far already!” Tenko shouted with a newfound strength as she stood in her own fighting stance. “We just gotta do it... SO LET'S DO IT!!!”

“No choice,” I whispered to myself as I reminded in deep thought. “We can't turn back now...”

I watched one-by-one as everyone crossed to the elevator and went inside. They seemed to disappear in the darkness behind the doors. It gave me an eerie feeling inside my stomach, and just then I started to realize just how nervous I was. Someone killed our friend, Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer. We were tasked with finding her killer, who was supposedly one of the fourteen students here. I knew I didn’t kill her, so I could narrow the list of suspects down to thirteen people. That... didn’t make me feel any better.

“You’re nervous, aren’t you, Rantaro?” Kaede’s voice broke my concentration. It was just her and I still standing there. “I can tell you’re really good at hiding how you’re actually feeling. You’re a hard person to read sometimes. But you don’t have to be nervous. I believe in you, Rantaro. I believe in all of us. Together, all of us can make it through this.” 

Kaede’s calming voice resonated in my mind for a moment, and I could feel my nerves begin to ease. We had to do this. I had to make sure that we were all going to live. We all had reasons for living, and to keep going forward. We had to stay positive for now. This was why Kaede was the most important one here out of all of us. She kept me from despair. 

“You’re right, Kaede.”

“Come on,” Kaede gently took my hand for a moment and nudged me forward. “I’ll be with you every step of the way.” 

We walked to the elevator door together and joined everyone else. The doors closed behind us, and we began to make the descent.


	2. The First Trial Part 1

The air of the elevator felt stagnate as the hum of the gears grinding and turning filled the room. Everyone remained silent as we fell further down into the abyss. We had no idea where this elevator was taken us; Monokuma gave us very little information to go off of. We were going to have a trial to discover which one of the fourteen of us killed a fellow student, Tsumugi Shirogane. Or, at the very least, we were going to try to find out who did it. The culprit was pretty good at hiding their tracks, for the most part. 

I kept my gaze fixated forward, towards the large metallic doors in front of me. I felt nervous. I felt dizzy. I felt sad. I never experienced this feeling before, but I could tell that I didn't like it. I kept Kaede's encouraging words in my mind, to keep me focused on the task at hand. It wouldn't do me any good to keep doubting myself, wondering if I could do it. I had no choice, really. I'm going to survive this. 

It was almost jarring when the elevator finally stopped. I guess we reached our destination. I could tell that nobody in the elevator was happy about this fact. Eh, except maybe Kokichi; he was too mischievous for his own good. I could hear mechanical noises all around us, which was the same noise that happened when the elevator was trying to close its doors. Like it or not, we were going to have a battle of truth and lies. A battle against our own hopes and despair. We were going to have a class trial.

The doors slowly opened, and the light from outside of the elevator filled the room. The sudden change in sight was almost blinding at first. It took a second for my eyes to finally adjust and regain focus. The room in front of us was rather impressive. The room itself was larger than I expected, with the ceiling reaching much further than I thought was possible. How far down were we? Stained glass windows surrounded us as we walked into the space, with the natural blue hue of the room slightly glowing on our faces. What caught my eye first, however, were the sixteen pedestals that were located at the center of the room, arranged in a perfect circle. 

"Puhuhuhuhu." 

A familiar laugh filled the room, and I knew instantly who it belonged to. That strange little demented bear, Monokuma. I followed where I heard the voice with my gaze, looking up above the sixteen seats to the massive chair at the top. That's where Monokuma sat, perched above us all with that sinister grin plastered permanently on his face. 

"Welcome to the class trial!" Monokuma shouted as he spun in his seat. He was having way too much fun with all of this. 

"This..." Keebo began as he analyzed the room around us, "is an authentic replica of a courtroom. 

"Why are you making us do this?" Kaede shouted towards Monokuma, clearly annoyed at what he was forcing us to do. "Is this fun for you?"

"Of course!" Monokuma gleefully responded. "There is no better entertainment! Now go stand behind the podiums over there! Make sure you stand behind the one with your name on it, or else you'll be punished before the trial even starts! We need to get this show on the road!"

We did as we were told, and headed to our respective podiums. As I made my way to my podium, I was beginning to feel my head pulsate and throb. Seeing my name engraved on the side of the pedestal triggered something in the back of my mind. My thoughts swirled throughout my head, and I gripped the sides of my podium so I wouldn't immediately fall over. I was trying to remember something. I had an overwhelming sense of deja vu, like this wasn't the first time I saw my name on a podium like this. But that was impossible.

Unless... unless I was missing some of my memories, like what the Survivor Perk had hinted towards. If that message could be trusted, then there was a time that I knew more information than I did right now. Monokuma could have easily forged that entire hint, though, just to mess with my head. He's that type of character. At the same time, there was no way I could easily shrug it off. It would explain why there were so many gaps in my memory that were gone... Especially why I couldn't remember my Ultimate Talent. No. There was no way that this killing game has happened before. 

"Do you need some assistance, Rantaro?" Kirumi asked as she took her place near me, a couple podiums down. "You do not look well. I can fetch you some herbal medicines and something to drink, if you would like."

"No, no thanks, Kirumi," I said as I regained my composure, and the pain in my head began to fade. "I'll be okay. We have more important things to worry about now." 

"As you wish."

"Ahem," Monokuma cleared his throat once all fourteen of us took our respective places. "Now then, let's begin with a basic explanation of the class trial. During the trial you'll present your arguments for who the culprit is, and vote for "whodunnit." Vote correctly, and only the blackened will be punished. But if you pick the wrong person... I'll punish everyone *besides* the blackened, and that person will graduate from this academy! Also, refusing to vote will result in your death. so you better vote for someone! Now, let's get this crazy, awesome, crazy-awesome trial underway!"

"So," Kaede responded, being the first one of us to speak, "it's starting, huh?"

"Ah-haha, oh man," Kokichi laughed, "I haven't been in a trial in, like, forever! "

"Nyeeeeeh. So you've done trials before?" Himiko asked in between a yawn.

"Yeah, since I'm a leader of evil and stuff," Kokichi smirked, making it hard to believe if he was telling the truth, "I've done a loooooot of bad things."

Yeah, he was lying.

"So, what are we supposed to do?" Kaito asked aloud as he was clearly trying to change the subject. "Where do we even start? 

"Gonta never done trial before..." Gonta hesitated. "Not sure where to begin..." 

"First, let's breathe in! And breathe out!" Tenko shouted as she raised her arms in her typical way. "We need to remember our "No, No, No's"! "No pushing! No running! No talking!"

"But communication is the foundation of any discussion!" Keebo retorted, unable to comprehend Tenko's logic. He wasn't the only one. 

"We should not worry about our procedure," Kirumi explained. "Especially since this is not a normal trial. Each of us will be serving as a potential culprit, lawyer, prosecutor, and jury member. Let us proceed with that in mind, shall we?"

"It's easy!" Miu screamed, pointing her finger in my direction. "Fuckin' pretty boy over there did it! Runstaro was the last one with the body!"

"Ugh," I sighed, knowing full well that I was going to have to explain it again. "I wasn't the one who killed Tsumugi. Just because I was the first person to find the body doesn't mean that I was the one who did it."

"If I may ask, Rantaro," Kiyo questioned, and I could feel his grin behind his mask, "what were you doing in the library at the time?"

"The library?"

"Isn't it obvious!" Kokichi's eyes sparkled. "Big Bro Rantaro was there to kill Tsumugi!"

Big Bro? That was the first I ever heard him call me that, so I was taken a little off guard. Did he really feel that way? No, he was just trying to get under my skin, just like he did with everyone else. I can't let him shake me up. 

"Or probably hiding the body!" Tenko added on as she gave me an odd looking expression. I couldn't tell if it was anger or disgust. Maybe both. "That's something a degenerate male would do!"

"Like I said before, Rantaro wouldn't kill anyone!" Kaede tried defending me once again, just like she had done when we first found the body. If I was going to prove my innocence in all of this, I would have to convince everyone else first. We wouldn't be able to make progress to finding the real culprit if I didn't do that first. 

"I already told everyone why I was there once we all discovered Tsumugi's body," I started my explanation. "I went to the library to check out the secret door before the time limit that Monokuma gave us ran out." 

"But how did you know that there was a secret passage there?" Kiyo continued his interrogation, not letting up on me. 

"Because he's probably the fuckin' mastermind behind it all!" Miu laughed as she pointed at me again. "Hahaha! Easy-peasy! The gorgeous blonde genius comes on top again!"

"No, don't be stupid," I said as I folded my arms. I was starting to get annoyed with her accusations. "If I was the mastermind, I wouldn't draw suspicion to myself. Just be quiet and I'll tell you."

"I was just trying to help." Miu drew back instantly, and she looked like she was about to cry. That didn't take long to knock her down a peg.

"I found scuff marks on the floor next to the bookcase recently." I brought my attention to my Monopad, and showed a picture that I had taken of the scuff marks to everyone else. "As a last ditch effort to save everyone before Monokuma killed us all, I went to go investigate the bookcase. I figured if it lead to anywhere, there was a good chance that I would find the mastermind and end this killing game. But once I figured out that is was covering up some sort of secret door, I found Tsumugi's body in the corner of the room. "

"If what Rantaro is saying is true, then that means that he isn't the culprit," Keebo summarized as he placed his hand on his chin. "He is just simply the first one to discover the body!"

"How can we be sure he is telling the truth?" Ryoma asked, not even bringing his eyes to meet mine. I didn't expect everyone to believe me that easily, so I wasn't surprised. "Even if he didn't kill Tsumugi there, you could have moved the body to the library and used the secret door as an excuse to be at the scene of the crime."

"No, that's wrong!" 

The words flew out of my mouth before I could even think about my response. I saw a contradiction in Ryoma's words, and I knew just how to prove him wrong. It was so bizarre. It felt so... natural. Like it wasn't the first time I had done that. 

"I can prove that I wasn't there at the time of death with these." My voice grew far more confident as I brought out the pictures that the cameras had taken in the library from my pocket. They were the same pictures that Monokuma expressed that I was the only one who could see them first. 

"Are those photographs?" Kirumi questioned as she examined the stack of photos in my hand. 

"Yeah," I answered, "taken around the time of Tsumugi's death."

"Then that means that we can see the killer!" Kaito's voice boomed as he heard my answer. "How the hell did you get those?" 

"Easy," I chuckled as I tossed my hair out of my eyes. "Kaede and and I found out that there were cameras set up around the library. If you want to be exact, there were three camera scattered throughout the room. One pointed to the front entrance, one pointed to the rear entrance, and another directed towards the secret door from the corner of the room that Tsumugi's body was found. If you look at these pictures, you can see Tsumugi enter the library from the side door and make her way to the corner of the room."

"S-So?" I could sense a hint of apprehension in Miu's voice with her response. Interesting.

"So," I continued, "if I was the one that killed Tsumugi in the library, you would see me coming up behind her in at least one of these pictures. " 

"That's right!" Kaede proceeded to back me up, just like she had done before. "Tsumugi is the only one seen in these pictures."

"Atua has just told me something! He's trying to bring us all to salvation with his wisdom. " Angie giggled as she closed her eyes and clapped her hands together. "What if Rantaro was the one taking the pictures?

"What?" I eyed Angie for a moment, not entirely sure if she was hearing her God, or just using him as an excuse to say what she wanted.

"You can't hide your actions from Atua. He sees all!" She laughed once more as she swayed from side-to-side. "Someone had to be behind the cameras in order for them to take pictures. Maybe you planned on using them to make yourself appear innocent. Huh? Huh?"

"No, not exactly," I said as I brought up the pictures of the motion sensors onto everyone's Monopad. "The cameras were actually connected to three different motion sensors set up in the library. Each camera was assigned to one sensor. Every time the sensors picked up movement at the front door, the side door, and by the secret bookshelf, the camera assigned to that sensor would go off and take a picture." 

"Meaning that you don't need another person physically there to take a picture," Maki explained, realizing what I was trying to convey. 

"Exactly!" Kaede added. "This means that during the time of the murder, Tsumugi was the only one in the room."

"Ahhhhh, I'm glad we figured that out, but where do we go from here?" Kokichi asked out loud as he pointed his finger towards us. "Even if we just proved that Rantaro didn't do it, it also means that nobody else could have been in the library. It looks like we ran into a dead end already." 

"There is something that's been bothering me." I placed my hand on the bottom of my chin, slightly distracted by the different thoughts in my mind. 

"Then fuckin' spill it, virgin!"

"It's the cameras itself," I said. "They seem way too old and primitive to do what they were doing." 

"What do you mean, Rantaro?" Kirumi asked.

"While Kaede and I were investigating, we noticed that the camera in the corner had its flash on, but it would only take a picture every so often, after a gap of time had passed," I explained as I examined the picture of the camera on my Monopad. "Even look at the pictures with Tsumugi. They aren't back-to-back images. Some time had passed in between. The interval between pictures couldn't have been longer than thirty seconds to a minute."

"Oh, I know!" Tenko exclaimed with a smirk on her face. "Maybe someone put the timer on the cameras on." 

"That's impossible," I corrected her, making sure to keep my calm tone. "They're old disposable cameras. They wouldn't have timers on them." 

"Ah, he's right!" Keebo shouted as he finally realized what I was alluding to. "According to my data banks disposable cameras were not equipped with timers! That means that it would be impossible for the cameras to take pictures by themselves." 

"Nyehhh," Himiko yawned again. "Maybe someone used magic on them. "

"Not quite, but it seems like they were still taking pictures somehow," I hummed as I crossed my arms in thought. "Something is still bothering me about those cameras. I think you know what I'm trying to say, Kaede."

"Oh, you're taking about how the disposable cameras were taking pictures every thirty or so seconds without having timers on them," Kaede caught my hint almost immediately. I expected nothing less, since we investigated together. "In order for that to happen, somebody would have to enhance the cameras."

"That's what I was thinking," I smiled, shifting my glance towards Miu. I could see that she was beginning to sweat as her face cringed. "And I think I know exactly who it was."

"Oh! Oh! I think I know who it is!" Kokichi gleefully shouted. "It was Keebo, wasn't it!" 

"Huh!? Why do you assume that it was me!?"

"Becaaaaaause you must be part camera!" Kokichi was laughing at his own joke. "All you cameras try to stick together!"

"That's robophobic!" Keebo stammered as he pointed towards our little troublemaker. "Besides, it's impossible for me to do that!"

"And why is that, Keeboy!"

"Because I have the intellect of a normal high school student!" Keebo smiled to himself. He seemed a little too proud of his limitations. "I also have the strength of several elderly old men put together." 

"Ahhhh, that's not something you shouldn't be bragging about," Himiko said.

"But it is useful," I reassured the group as I tried to get the conversation back on track. "If Keebo wasn't the one who enhanced the cameras, then it could only have been Miu."

"Ugh, why me?" Miu cheeks become bright red once I accused her. She must have seen me eyeing her before I brought up her name. 

"It only makes sense," I continued. "You're the Ultimate Inventor. You're the only one here that could possibly connect these old cameras with motion sensors. No one else here has that kind of mechanical skill." 

"Ahhhh, the pressure," Miu screamed as she drooled slightly, her face red as ever. "Keep going."

It's official. I'm really uncomfortable. 

"She seems like she's enjoying this a little too much," Kaito sighed with a confused looked on his face. 

"I believe I am following Rantaro's train of thought," Kirumi interjected. "The amount of knowledge with machinery needed to combine these old fashion cameras with motion sensors would be too great for the normal high school student. The only one here that could possibly achieve such a grand feat is Miu." 

"Please, Miu," I begged her, hoping she would see the genuine look in my eyes. "Just tell us the truth. It could help us find out why Tsumugi was there."

"Ugh, fiiiiiine, but only because you begged for the help of the beautiful blonde genius herself," Miu chuckled as she regained some form of composure. Or at least as much as Miu could possibly gain. "Tsumugi was the one who came up to me, and asked me to hook up the cameras with the motion sensors." 

"She came up to you first?"

"Yep! I was mindin' my own fuckin' business in the cafeteria this morning, eating my breakfast. That's when Plain Jane herself came up to me, holding all those cameras and the motion sensors, completely BEGGING me to make them work somehow. She doubted I could even do it, but I showed her who's boss! HAHAHAHA!"

"You know she probably just said that you can't do it in order to get you to do it?" Kokichi sighed. "I'm not surprised that reverse psychology works on a such dumb bitch like yourself."

"Dumb bitch? UGGGGGHHHHHH."

Stop it. I'm trying to focus, Miu.

"Anyway," I hurriedly tried to change the subject off of Miu; she clearly was handling all this attention in her own way, "what she just said brought up something interesting. It was obvious before that Tsumugi at least knew about the cameras, which was pretty apparent in the pictures. But if she was the one who made Miu combine the cameras with the motion sensors, then it also means that she was the one who made the trap."

"Did you just say 'trap'?" Kaito questioned as he scratched the back of his head with his free hand. "What makes you think that it was some sort of trap?"

"Think about it for a second," I responded almost instantaneously. I knew that everyone would question my word choice, if they haven't already figured it out what was going on. "Of all places, the room that had the secret room that we believe leads to the mastermind was completely covered in cameras and motion sensors. One camera pointed at the front door, one at the rear door, and even one pointed in the direction of the fake bookshelf. Tsumugi was the one the asked Miu to modify the cameras, so she was the last one who had them once she got them back. It only makes sense that she was the one who put them all over the library." 

"How can you be sure about that?" Maki asked me as she sent her penetrating stare my way. "Isn't that kind of a big deal to just leave as an assumption." 

"It's not an assumption," I reached for the receiver in my pocket that I found of Tsumugi's body. "I can prove it."

"Ehhhhh, what's that?" Tenko asked as she kept her view fixated on the new piece of evidence. 

"It's the receiver for the motion sensors," I responded as I held the receiver out for everyone to see. "It goes off every time the motion sensors pick something up. That means it also flashes whenever there is a picture taken. I found it in Tsumugi's pocket at the scene of the crime."

"Ugggghhhhh," Tenko made a disgusted noise once she heard this. "You touched the body? You better have went through JUST her pockets, you degenerate male!"

"I think I know what you're getting at," Ryoma said as he pushed his hat down in the cool manner he tended do. "Tsumugi found out about the secret door, got Miu to modify the cameras, and then set them up all around the library, knowing that the mastermind would have to go there in order to make more Monokumas at the end of our time limit. The receiver would go off when they entered through either door, and she would could capture them."

"No, that's wrong!"

It happened again. Those words came out of my mouth almost as if it was instinct. I saw the contradiction, and it was almost impossible for me not to point it out, to get closer to the truth. To be honest, I was always fond of proving people wrong; call it one of my guilty pleasures. But this went beyond that. This was a matter of life or death... Of survival. 

"I don't think Tsumugi's intention was to apprehend the mastermind... I think she was trying to kill them." 

"Huh?" Kaede had been with me the entire way up to this point, but I don't think she was ready for that. I wouldn't have been if the roles were reversed. I never told her about this hunch during our investigation, as it lacked any sort of tangible proof at the time. I never trusted Tsumugi, and maybe this was my way of proving that my paranoia was justified. But it seemed so clear, now that we all talked this through.

"How dare you accuse Tsumugi of such a thing!" Tenko yelled, obviously shaken up by my accusations. "She was our friend! She would never do something like that!" 

"Do we know that for sure, though?" I retorted, clearly not giving up my stance on this. "I can prove it, too. Look at this picture."

I brought the group's attention back to the stack of photos that I presented to them before. I quickly flipped through the pictures, skipping all of the ones that I knew were useless for now. I knew exactly the photo that I needed.

"Just look at this picture, of Tsumugi first entering the library through the rear door. Not only is she going directly to the corner of the room with the camera without hesitating, she's also holding the shotput ball in her hand, which ended up being the murder weapon." 

"And she has a weird smile on her face," Himiko painfully whispered as she shifted her view from the photo, unable to look at it any longer. 

"That's tooooootally an evil smile," Kokichi laughed. "Trust me, I smile like that aaaaaaall the time in front of my secret evil organization."

"And look at this other picture that was taken after," I brought out the picture of Tsumugi that was taken after the blank photo. "If you look closely, you can see that she no longer has the shotput ball in her hands. It's gone from sight."

"Shit, you're right," Kaito exclaimed as he noticed the details the I brought up. "It's gone. Where the hell did she put it?"

"Oh! Oh! I know! Atua has told me!" Angie swayed from side-to-side as he jumped in place. "She put it on the floor, hoping that someone would trip on it and smack their head! Haha! Which is what exactly happened!"

"No, that's wrong!"

I have to stop doing that.

"No, I don't think she put it on the floor, but rather decided to hide it in the opposite direction," I continued. "There was a space on the top shelf of the book case that was about three books wide. You wouldn't notice anything out of place on its own, but its just above where Tsumugi was murdered. There's no way that's just a coincidence. The books were so packed in the shelf that moving one would shift the entire balance of the books on the shelf. Someone arrange the books like that to keep that space open."

"How can you be sure that those books were not already moved before we arrived to this school?" Kirumi questioned. She wanted to be thorough with this trial, not leaving anything to chance. I had to respect that. "Even if it is suspicious, I believe we must be absolutely sure before we agree on absolutes."

"I can prove it," Kaede interrupted. I expected her to do so. After all, she was the one who found the evidence that would prove that Tsumugi did this. "Do you remember the ladder in the library? There were scuff marks on the floor leading from the ladder's original spot to the corner of the room where Tsumugi was murdered. If someone were to take their time, they wouldn't have damaged the floor. But if it was Tsumugi that moved it, she was racing against time since the cameras were on some sort of interval. She couldn't have taken her time moving it!" 

"That's also the time she put the flash on the camera," I added on to Kaede's deductions. "Look at the first picture of Tsumugi approaching the camera near the secret door. It's blurry, out of focus, and the lighting in kind of dark."

I then brought out the picture of Tsumugi's face that was far closer to the lens of the camera. 

"Huh," Kaede gasped. "It's brighter! She's all washed out, and you can even see the reflection of the flash on her glasses." 

"See?" I concluded. "That could only mean that she did that in order to draw someone to that specific location. She probably put the shotput ball on on the edge of the shelf that she made space, knowing full well that any movement to the shelf would make the ball tip over and fall. With everything that we know, it's not crazy to assume that it went down like this: 

Tsumugi entered the library with the shotput ball, rushed the ladder over to the corner, cleared a space on the bookshelf to put the shotput ball, then balanced the shotput ball on the shelf, put the ladder back where she found it, and put the flash on the camera."

"Why would she do such a thing, though?" Keebo asked out loud as he brought his metallic hand to his chin. "Wouldn't she be caught right away when we looked at the photographs from the scene of the crime?" 

"Maybe she had control over what pictures we all would be able to see?" I proposed as I kept my sight fixed on the stack of photographs. "Something Monokuma had said to me has been bothering me."

***"Yep!" Monokuma's accent dropped for a moment and he went back to normal. "But I have to say that these pictures are only for you, Randy."***

"He kept insisting that I was the only one who could handle these pictures. Once I saw them first, I could show them to everyone else. I was really confused at first as to why this was rule... But I think I know why. It's because I've been holding on to the receiver." 

"What does the receiver have to with that?" Maki's eyes furrowed in my direction. 

"Here me out on this," I assured her. "Since Tsumugi was in charge of the cameras, it's not impossible to think that she would know ahead of time that Monokuma would be the one to develop them. What if one of them made the condition that he would deliver the photos to whomever was holding onto the receiver? It would make sense as to why only I could see them first, and as to why she was so bold in setting up a trap, knowing full well that she was being photographed tge whole time."

"Gonta still don't understand," Gonta grunted as he tried to follow along with the conversation. "Why one photo broken?"

"My best guess that Tsumugi used her handkerchief to cover to lens of the camera," I answered. "Why she did that? Probably to keep the number of photos consistent. Those cameras still used film, after all. They would only take a limit number of pictures before they ran out. It would look really suspicious if the camera ran out of film but only took a few photos. The blank photo was there to take up space, and and to throw off any sort of trail that they were tampered with before the rest of us could see them." 

"Was she trying to... kill the mastermind?" Himiko's voice was so small and inaudible, that I could barely hear it at first. 

"Not likely," I surmised as I looked away from Himiko, unable to look at her face as I accused her friend. "Whatever she was planning obviously failed, that much is for certain. Someone killed her, and Monokuma has made it pretty clear that the mastermind is unable to directly interfere with the killing game in such a way. Otherwise what's the point for anyone the follow the rules if the one running the game doesn't make it fair? If she was trying to kill the mastermind, there would be no way that the mastermind would be able to kill her first. My best guess is that she was trying to kill someone in order to avoid the time limit that Monokuma put on us."

"That fuckin' bitch was tryin' to kill one of us!" Miu shouted, the anger boiling in her voice. "I knew that forgettable, 'I'm so nice and helpless' look was just for show!"

"That's all well and great that we figured out that Whatshername tried to murder one of us," Kokichi said as he glared at me with a mischievous, and somewhat unsettling, smirk, "but we are still not anywhere closer to solving what really matters in this class trial."

"What do you mean?" Tenko asked as she stood in her special fighting pose. "How can you say that? There's no way that we've been wasting all this time talking and haven't gotten anywhere!"

"Ugh, do I have to explain everything?" Kokichi groaned. "Think about it. Yeah, we found out that Tsumugi was planning on killing one of us, but that's not what happened. Somebody here killed Tsumugi, and we have haven't got a clue on who did it. All we did was narrow down Tsumugu's plan, but not the actual killer's. Geez, I'm turning into Rantaro with all this talking and explaining." 

He... He was right. We all had felt so confident and successful for picking up on Tsumugi's plan to kill, but we still far from uncovering that truth behind it all. Somebody killed Tsumugi before she could do it herself. She wasn't the target we were aiming for here; somebody else was. Finding the blackened was out top priority. The murderer was the only one that matter. 

I have to find more leads. I have to find something that we missed.

I have to survive.


	3. The First Trial Part 2

Everything was silent for a moment as the realization that revealing Tsumugi's plan wasn't the main goal here. I could tell just by looking at Kokichi's face that he was getting some sort of enjoyment out of all of this. I found that fact very... confusing. Didn't he understand that he was on the same side as us? If we couldn't find out who killed Tsumugi, he would be punished along with the rest of us. Did he know more than what he was letting on? From the small amount of time we were trapped in this school together, Kokichi proved to be a troublemaker, no doubt about it, but also perceptive when he had to be. If he was playing dumb for now, then I imagine he was testing us. He was playing his own game.

"So..." Kaito was the first one to break the deafening silence. "What do we do now?"

"Did we really just waste all this time?" Tenko exclaimed with a nervous look on her face. "We've been talking for so long!"

"Just face it," Kokichi smiled as he shrugged his shoulders. "Talking about how Tsumugi tried to kill one of us doesn't get us any closer to finding out who killed her instead. The only thing that matters in this trial is finding the murderer."

"As much as it pains me to to say this, he is indeed correct," Kirumi said, looking just as disappointed as the rest of us. "As Monokuma has stated before, the objective of this trial is find the culprit of the murder. Anything else will simply hinder our progress."

"But we can't just give up!" Kaede shouted as she slammed her hands against the side of her podium. "There has to be more to discuss! There just has to be!" 

"While I agree that finding the culprit is the main objective here, I don't think we should dismiss Tsumugi's plan just yet," I chimed in, trying my best to regain the focus of the class trial. I had to stop Kokichi from derailing this entire thing. "But we can come back to that a little later. There's still something else that's been bothering me that I want to talk about."

"Oh, really." Kokichi sent a watchful eye my way, curious about what I was hinting towards. "Then the floor is all yours, Big Bro."

"Kaede brought this up to me earlier in our investigation, and it's been bothering me ever since," I explained as I crossed my arms and flipped my head to the side to get my hair out of my face. "Before we found the body, Kaede told me that her and Kaito found Tenko and Himiko in the classroom that's right before the basement stairs."

"Huh!?!?" Tenko physically flinched when I brought this fact to our attention. 

"Nyehhhhh!?!?" Himiko lost all color in her cheeks as a bead of sweat began its way down her face. 

"I don't know, maybe it's just me being paranoid," I started again, taking their clear signs of distress as a hint to keep pushing. "But it seems really bizarre for you two to be in that specific classroom right before the murder. None of us even use the classrooms in this school, as far as I'm aware of. What we're you doing in there?"

"How dare you accuse us of being murderers!" Tenko raised her arms in a defensive manner in my direction. "Isn't that just like a typical MALE to shift the blame onto someone else!"

"I'm not accusing you of murdering Tsumugi. We've already dismissed the idea of two people working together, since only one person gets the benefits of being the culprit. I just think it's suspicious that you two were there of all places while the murder was taking place." 

"Answer the fuckin' question!" Miu screamed as she viciously pointed towards Tenko and Himiko. "Otherwise it's pretty clear that you two virgins did it!" 

"I was, ahhhhhh," Himiko stuttered for a second as we all closed in on them with our words. "I was showing Tenko my maaaaaagic."

They were definitely hiding something.

"Weren't you complaining earlier that Tenko wouldn't leave you alone?" Kaede questioned, raising her eyebrow in the process. "It seems pretty weird that you would take her to a classroom just to show her a trick if you don't even like her."

"They're not tricks! It's real-life maaaaagic!"

"Himiko would never, ever say something so mean!" Tenko was quick to defend the small magician. "Himiko is a sweet, innocent cinnamon roll that wouldn't even think about hurting a fly!" 

"Gonta don't see fly."

"Nyeehhhh, it's true, though. I did say that."

"Himiko!" Tenko eyes teared up slightly. "It's fine. I already forgive you! I know you didn't mean it!" 

Tenko regained that sparkle in her eye whenever she looked at Himiko. The tears that she was about to shed quickly dried up, and Tenko once again beamed with one of her bright smiles. That was fast. 

"Please," I brought my voice down as I looked between the two of them. My tone was serious as I begged them, trying to compel them to answer my question, hoping they would finally tell me what I needed to know. This was one of the few leads that we still had. It was up to them, whether I liked it or not. "I need you two to tell us why you were there. We're completely out of leads, so we're all putting our faith in you two. Anything you know could help all of us live."

"We..." Tenko gave a defeated sigh, and that's when I knew that she had finally come to her senses. "We were waiting for Tsumugi."

"What!?" Kaito gave an immediate shout of confusion at Tenko's confession. He wasn't the only one that was caught off guard by her words. None of us were expecting her to say that she was waiting for Tsumugi, who at the time was plotting to murder one of us. 

Without hearing the rest of Tenko's statement, I could only speculate on Tsumugi's master plan in all of this. I doubted she was setting up such an elaborate murder scheme just to try to randomly kill someone. Especially since the odds of her killing anyone in the library were extremely low to begin with. Only a few of us even knew about the secret door before the murder. No one else would have been in there for any other reason. Hell, even I just found out about the door right before I found the body. She wouldn't set everything up without knowing for certain she was actually going to get someone with it. 

"Tsumugi told us about the secret door earlier today, when we were eating breakfast this morning," Tenko continued to explain, her cheeks flushing red with a hint of shame. "She said she found a door that might lead to the mastermind in the library, and she had a plan to stop them before the time limit ran out."

"I didn't want to do it, since I hate doing things that are hard," Himiko said, which only helped solidify her lazy behavior in mind. "But we were afraid of Monokuma's time limit. He was going to kill us tonight if a murder didn't happen soon. We were just going to to catch them in the act, and Tenko would capture them before they went to their secret lair." 

"But that's not what happened, did it?" I asked as I kept my hand on my chin, taking in every detail they told me. 

"No, Tsumugi going to the library by herself wasn't part of the original plan," Tenko whispered as she kept her gaze low, too ashamed to look at all of us. "She told us her plan to use the cameras she found in the storage room, and already asked Miu to modify those cameras. All we had to do was help her set up the cameras and wait in the upstairs classroom. Once the cameras set off the receiver, we would all rush downstairs, and I would use my amazing Neo-Aikido to take out the mastermind and save the day!"

"But while we were waiting, Tsumigi said that she needed to use the bathroom and would be right back," Himiko added. "When she didn't come back for awhile, we didn't know what to do. We couldn't check the library, because then the cameras would go off and take our picture."

"And that's when Kaito and I found you in the classroom," Kaede responded as she pieced together the timeline of events. "When we found you, you two were really reluctant to leave and go to the Rec Room with us. Now it makes sense why."

"But we had a good reason!" Tenko shouted defensively. "If Tsumugi came back and we weren't there, she would still have to try to stop the mastermind. There would be no way she could do it by herself! Her soft, delicate hands were not prepared for combat!"

Keeping all of this in mind, I began to think about something that didn't hit me until now: Who was Tsumugi's intended target? Odds are she had someone in mind, if she went this far already with her plan. But who? She obviously went to go set up her death trap when she told Tenko and Himiko she was going to the bathroom, but maybe she thought she could kill either one of them later. But then how would she split them up? Tenko wouldn't leave Himiko alone, even if Himiko hated every minute of Tenko's overbearing presence. There would be no way that Tenko would leave her alone, even for a second, if she thought there was any danger of her being harmed by the mastermind. Then who else knew about the secret door? Her target couldn't have been... Me? No way. Only the mastermind and I knew about the Survivor Perk. If Tsumugi truly was the mastermind, we still wouldn't be playing this sick game right now. 

"Let's talk about that meeting in the Rec Room for a second." I took control of the conversation, hoping to steer it in a particular direction. If I was going to catch the culprit in a lie, I needed them to slip up somehow. The longer this class trial went on, the better our odds of finding a mistake became. "Can someone explain to me what the meeting was exactly?" 

"Oh, don't worry, I can explain it!" Kaito wore a big smile on his face, obviously eager to tell us the plan that he had made. "I started gathering everyone that I thought could fight against Monokuma once the time limit reached zero. We weren't just going to sit around and wait to die! I was the one who thought of the name: A War Meeting! Sounds pretty cool, huh?" 

"It sounded a lot cooler the first time he said it," Kaede nervously laughed. "But after going around the school for about twenty minutes, we were able to find Tenko, Maki, Gonta, Angie, and Himiko.

"So the people in the meeting were Kaede, Kaito, Tenko, Maki, Gonta, Angie, and Himiko," Kokichi repeated as he gave the rest of the class a bored look. "I'm deeply hurt that you didn't invite me to your War Meeting! I can fight too! I've killed twenty men with my bare hands! At the same time!"

"Wait," I interrupted, ignoring Kokichi's apparent lie. "Why did you pick the the Rec Room of all places to have your meeting?"

"I suggested it," Maki quickly replied. "It seemed like a good of a location as any. There's only one entrance to the room, so it would be easy to catch anyone trying to spy on us. Especially if the mastermind tried to sneak in."

"It made sense to have it there,' Ryoma agreed as he lowered his hat on his head. "It was an easy position to hold, if Monokuma tried to barge in on us."

"So you knew about the side door?" I questioned. From the outside of the room, the side door leading into the movie room appeared locked, as it was impossible to move it. But if you were to lift it by the handle in just the right way on the inside of the room, you could open it slightly, at least a few inches. 

"We tried using it to get in at first, but it didn't budge at all," Kaito explained as he fixed the sleeve of his jacket. "It was pretty obvious that it was locked, so we didn't mess with it any more."

"No, that's wrong!"

Sorry Kaito, but I had the urge to fix any contradictions that I spotted. I was trying to bait this one out, to see how much they knew. If the culprit used the Rec Room at all for the murder, they would be aware of the trick to opening the door. 

"The side door may appear locked on the outside, but it's a completely different story on the inside. If you lift the handle up, the door can actually still slide open, but only a few inches. It's not big enough for a person to fit through, but it's definitely wide enough for a person to peek into the hallway." 

"Silly, Rantaro," Angie giggled as she analyzed me with her bright eyes. "What does this have to do with anything about Tsumugi's murder? People who try to sabotage our discussion will become great sacrifices for Atua!" 

That was... creepy, to say the least. But I had a good reason for bringing up all of this, even if the others hadn't noticed it yet. If the culprit wasn't photographed at all, the odds of them being in the same room as Tsumugi during the time of her death was unlikely. No, it was strictly impossible. They found a way to kill her with her own trap without physically being next to her. The only other logical location for the suspect to be without being seen would be the Rec Room. The culprit was somebody in the War Meeting. 

"Just look at the placement of the rooms in the basement," I retorted, not backing down from Angie. "Right across the hallway from the side door of the Rec Room is the rear door of the library. They completely line up with each other." 

"So?"

"So, if you open both doors, you can see directly to the corner of the library that Tsumugi was killed." 

"Wait a minute," Kaito gasped as a thought for a moment. "Are you trying to say that somebody from the Rec Room killed Tsumugi?"

"It would appear so," Korekiyo chuckled as he examined the panicked expression on Kaito's face. 

"How dare you!?" Tenko was appalled that I could have been possibly accusing her again. It didn't surprise me to see her react like this. It was expected at this point. She wasn't my target, though. Dig a little bit deeper, Rantaro.

"Wait a minute," Kaede exclaimed, trying to reel everyone's anger back in. "Rantaro's not accusing anyone. He's just trying to make a point..."

"No, Korekiyo's right," I immediately cut off Kaede's words. I needed to rile everyone up. If I could make everyone nervous, someone would eventually make a mistake. "Someone from your War Meeting definitely killed Tsumugi." 

"That's ridiculous!" Kaito boomed a he held a clenched fist towards me. "No one even went into the back room for that long during the entire meeting, except for..."

"Gonta."

Kaede had told me earlier that Gonta kept wandering into the movie room during the meeting in the Rec Room, and they were unable to hold his attention for long. Gonta had told them that all he wanted to do was watch bug documentaries on the projector. He wasn't one for talking and planning, which was the whole purpose of the meeting. It was the perfect excuse to keep going into the back room. 

"Are... are you saying the Gonta found a way to kill Tsumugi from the Rec Room?" Kaede couldn't believe it, just as much as I myself didn't believe it. Gonta had such a caring and sweet attitude to him, even if he wasn't the smartest one among us. 

"Huh?" Gonta looked confused, as I'm sure he was not expecting us to bring his name into this out of nowhere. "Gonta not kill anyone! Gonta gentleman!"

"But it makes sense," Maki said as she glared at Gonta with cold eyes. "Gonta kept going into the back room. We could barely keep his attention on the meeting. Besides, look at the pictures that Rantaro showed us. Tsumugi kept the door open behind her when she went through the rear door. All Gonta would have to do is to open the door in the movie room, and he could see into the library."

"Then..." Himiko stuttered. "Then Gonta killed Tsumugi?"

"Oh, I get it!" Tenko shouted. "Since the murder weapon is the shotput ball, then it has to be Gonta! He's the only one strong enough to throw it into another room. Gonta brought the shotput ball with him into the Rec Room, went into the movie room when no one was looking, forced the jammed door open, and WHAM! Threw the shotput ball at Tsumugi and hit her in the back of the head!" 

"But that is impossible!' Keebo reflected on her wild assumptions. "The photographs of Tsumugi clearly shows her holding a shotput ball! If Gonta had killed her with another one, we would have found two shotput balls at the scene of the crime."

"Maybe he went into the library and hid it later!"

"No, there's no way that happened!" Kaede exclaimed. "Gonta never left the Rec Room once we all went inside. The only ones who left the room were me, Kaito, Tenko, and Himiko, and that's when we ran into Rantaro. If Gonta went into the library before then, there would have been a picture of him!"

My plan was working so far. I had kept quiet for now, letting the others argue it out amongst each other. Once my classmates believed they were getting closer to finding out the blackened, the real culprit would no doubt make a mistake in order to frame someone else. I was getting closer to the truth. There was just more step I had to take.

"This may sound random right now," I started, knowing full well that I would get strange looks from everyone before I could explain myself, "but did anyone set up a billiard ball in the library by any chance? Maybe either Tenko or Himiko, as a way of setting up some sort of weird trap to capture the mastermind?"

"A ball?" Himiko sounded completely baffled by my question. "No, I don't remember us setting a ball anywhere. But why are you asking this now? Gonta's about to be found guilty!" 

"You're right, it is a weird question to ask now," I agreed. "But having a ball in the library is pretty weird, isn't it? But what if I told you that one was found in the library during our investigation, and it's the most important piece of evidence that we have?"

"What does a cue ball have to do with any of this?" Maki dismissed me right away, and she didn't even look in my direction. "Try not to ask stupid questions."

Got you.

"But Maki... I never said what kind of billiard ball it was."

"What?"

"I never said that it was a cue ball. All I said that it was a billiard ball, which is pretty vague if you ask me. Kaede and I were the only ones to see it, so you shouldn't have any idea that it was the cue ball, out of all of them." 

"So it was just a lucky guess?" Maki tried her best to make it sound like I was the ridiculous one in this conversation, but she had already given me enough to work off of. "I barely know how to play pool, so it's the only ball I know. What's this have to do with the Gonta, anyway?" 

"Everything, really," I responded as I kept my calm gaze locked firmly onto Maki's piercing eyes. " Because that pool ball is the actual murder weapon in all of this." 

"Wait a minute, I'm confused," Himiko yawned as she rubbed her head, trying hard to concentrate on the shift in our conversation. "I thought we already said that the shotput ball is the murder weapon? Now it's the pool ball?"

"I'm not sure I follow your reasoning either, Rantaro," Kirumi said. "Could a billiard ball kill someone from that distance? And what of the shotput ball that was found next to Tsumugi, that was also covered in her blood?"

"No, I don't think that the pool ball was the murder weapon itself," I admitted, "but what if the ball was the main cause of her death?"

"Ohhhhhhhh, this should be interesting," Kokichi chuckled as he pressed his index finger across his lips. "I'm all ears, Big Bro." 

"We couldn't figure out how someone was able to kill Tsumugi without entering the room, or else they would be seen in the pictures. Maybe the culprit didn't even know about the cameras set up in the room, but they were forced to kill Tsumugi from inside the Rec Room, since they couldn't leave without looking suspicious later on when the body was found. In a way, they were trying to create a perfect alibi; they couldn't possibly be the murderer if they were in a completely different room filled with other people to vouch for their innocence. If that was the case, then the billiard ball makes much more sense in all of this." 

After talking about the evidence for so long, I finally had a clear picture on what exactly happened. I believe I figured out how someone was able to accomplish such a bizarre murder, and it appeared that Tsumugi unwillingly helped that person murder her, possibly without even knowing it herself. The hunter and become the hunted. Whoever this blackened was, they forced Tsumugi into her own trap without her seeing it coming.

"What if the culprit used whatever they could find in the Rec Room in order to sabotage Tsumugi's murder plan, and turned her trap against her?"

"What the fuck are you sayin', Pretty Boy!?" Miu shouted. "Just tell us already!" 

"While in the War Meeting, the culprit grabbed the cue ball from the pool table and hid it on them somehow, knowing that it was the only thing in the room that could fit through the gap of the side door in the movie room. When everyone else was distracting by making a plan to stop Monokuma, the suspect went into the movie room, opened the side door, and threw the pool ball at Tsumugi. 

"But..." Kaede started. "Would a pool ball be enough to kill her, even if it hit her in the back of the head?"

"No, probably not. But I don't think that was their intention. Because the two rear doors of both rooms are directly across the hall from each other, it's possible that the culprit was able to see Tsumugi set up her death trap with the shotput ball. Remember the space on the top shelf that Tsumugi made to balance the shotput ball? Her plan was to turn on the flash of the camera, and when someone touched that camera to investigate, the ball would be thrown off balance and land on their head. That's how she wanted to kill them." 

"I think I see what you're trying to say," Kaede thought aloud as she listened to my explanation. "If the culprit threw the billiard ball at Tsumugi, it would knock her into the bookshelf when she was putting the finishing touches on her plan. The impact of her hitting the shelf would make the shotput ball fall right on top of her head!"

"Killing her instantly."

"That... seems very logical," Keebo admitted as he analyzed our theory. "It would explain everything- how the culprit wasn't filmed, why there wasn't a second shotput ball found, and why the billiard ball was discovered at the scene of the crime."

"But that still doesn't change anything," Maki argued, but never raised her voice. She kept that intensity in every word that she said. "All we did was figure out how Gonta did it."

"But Gonta not murderer!" Gonta pleaded as he began to panic and sweat. "Gonta gentleman!"

"Ughhhh, she's right," Tenko cringed at the realization of Maki's words. "Gonta was still the only one who kept going back into the movie room, and he could easily throw a pool ball into the library from that room."

"This actually changes everything," I interjected. I was going to dictate the pace of this trial now. After all, I had complete control of the room at this point. The culprit slipped up. "If Gonta was the one to throw the billiard ball, it would have caused way more damage to Tsumugi than just knocking her over. No offense Gonta, but you don't seem like the type to think that far ahead."

"Gonta live in the moment!"

That... wasn't a compliment.

"It's true that Gonta might be the only one here that could potentially kill someone by throwing a billiard ball from across the room, due to his strength and size. What I'm about to ask next may be difficult to remember, but I need everyone from the War Meeting to try to think of this: Who was the one that had to get Gonta from the movie room whenever he wandered away?"

Kaede had told me something important earlier in our investigation. She said that Gonta kept wandering off from the meeting and going to the back room. I didn't realize it at the moment, but I figured out that the word 'kept' was the key word in all of this. That implied that he did it more than once. Someone would've had to keep retrieving him from the room and bring him back, only for him to eventually wander off again.

"Let's see..." Kaito ran his fingers through his goatee for a moment as he thought. "Gonta only did that a couple of times, but the only person that volunteered to go get him was... Maki."

"Which means that Gonta wasn't the only one that went into the movie room," I reiterated to my classmates. "Combine that with the fact that she knew the exact kind of ball it was before I said anything specific, and Maki looks very suspicious right now, doesn't she?"

Maki stayed absolutely silent after my accusation. She didn't even look flustered at my discovery; in fact, she looked as calm as ever. The was not expected. To be honest, watching her stand there without showing any sort of nervousness or apprehension was... unnerving. That might have even an understatement. Was I wrong? No, keep going, Rantaro. Don't second guess yourself now. You're so close to surviving.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Kaito shouted as he slammed his fist against his podium. "That can't be right! Sure, she looks scary and all, but can we really say that she's a killer?"

"Atua has shown me Rantaro's biggest flaw in his explanation," Angie giggled eerily. "The only way Maki could kill Tsumugi is if she knew about the secret door and Tsmugui's plan ahead of time! If she didn't, how would she know that Tsumugi would be in the room at that time?" 

The way she talked made it sound like she wanted me to be wrong, like she got some enjoyment from trying to show the rest of the class that I wasn't as smart as I appeared. Didn't Angie realize that we were on the same team in all of this? What would she get from me being wrong? Maybe some sort of wicked satisfaction. It didn't dawn on me until now just how much Angie's presence made me so uneasy. I couldn't tell if she truly believed everything she said, or just tried to get everyone to follow along with her. 

"Ohhhhhh, that's easy," Kokichi said in a very casual tone. "That's because I already told her about that secret door behind the bookshelf."

What did he just say? There was no way he was being serious. He had to be telling one of his lies again. There was no way he knew about the door... Unless... 

"You saw the scuff marks, too?" If we were being honest, I didn't see the marks on the floor by the shelf until after the door was exposed, but I had to keep my story straight for now. I couldn't have people turning on me just yet.

"Duh, I'm not nearly as dumb as Miu looks," he smirked slyly as he shifted his sight around the room. He had everyone's undivided attention. "I noticed it yesterday. I found the secret door by myself, since nothing escapes my evil eye, and I only told two people about it..."

"Tsumugi and..." Kaede frowned, knowing she was feeding into his ego. 

"Yep! I told Maki, too! I even told her she wasn't the only one who knew about the door. She knew I told the Plain Girl first! But I had no idea that Whatsherface would make a plan and try to kill someone! I would've helped her!"

The room was silent after Kokichi's startling revelation. It was almost as if none of us wanted to believe it. I'm sure most of us didn't. Were we really going to put our faith in someone that was a frequent liar? Why tell the truth now, of all times? He could have easily been lying to us now in order to undo all the progress we made. That was something I could see him doing, even in the small amount of time that I knew him. 

"If what he's saying is true," I summarized, "then it means that not only did Maki know about the secret door, but that she knew that Tsumugi was also told about it."

"He's... he's lying," Teko stuttered as she aimed her fighting stance towards Kokichi. "He's just trying to throw us off, now that we're so close! to finding the truth!! Just like a MALE!" 

"No." Maki finally spoke after being silent for so long. "He not lying. I... I did it."


	4. A Survivor's Guilt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! 
> 
> Sorry for not posting a chapter in such a long time. I've been crazy busy the past few weeks, and I write these whenever I have free time. Now that things are calming down a bit, I'm looking forward to updating this story more. I think I'm much more satisfied with this chapter then the last one. Tell me what you all think of the story so far and where you think it's going!

I have to say that hearing a confession come from Maki herself was not what I was expecting. Before this trial began, I expected the culprit to be conniving and deceitful; to use our own paranoia and distrust against each other. The culprit was the only one among us that knew for sure who the blackened was. The other thirteen of us were simply throwing out ideas, trying to find something that would stick. It was the nature of the game for the culprit to use their anonymity to their advantage. As long as they weren't completely obvious with their tactics, they could easily derail the trial and send us all in the wrong direction. Kokichi wasn't even the culprit and he was doing that. 

Knowing all of that, Maki didn't try to deny my accusation. She could have said my train of thought was flawed, and I only really relied on her slip of the tongue with the cue ball. I couldn't even fault her for that if she did. But she didn't. Hell, she could have stayed silent and not said anything, and have the rest of us argue her innocence, and that would have been more effective to gaining her freedom. 

Was winning this game not part of her plan?

"Did..." I stuttered slightly as the various possibilities rolled through my head. "Did you just confess to killing Tsumugi?" 

"Yes," Maki responded instantly as she kept her gaze towards the ground. "I did it."

"Hey, just wait a minute!" Kaito shouted with a look of shock on his face. "Are you sure? Did you hit Tsumugi with the shotput ball?"

"I saw it." Her response was quick. "Like Rantaro said, I took the billiard ball from the Rec Room during our meeting, and made sure that I was the one who went to get Gonta when he wandered off into the movie room. When he finally left the room, I opened the side door as much as it could open, and I could see Tsumugi setting up her trap since she left the side door open. Knowing I probably couldn't hit her from that distance, I threw the ball as hard as I could into the bookshelf. The door closed right away as soon as it made impact, so I didn't see her die, but I made sure she wouldn't be able to hurt anyone else. I was the only one that could have done it." 

"But... But..." Tenko looked as if she was about to cry. "Why? Why would you do it, Maki?"

"Because she was the mastermind."

The silence that filled the room was deafening. She didn't even hesitate to find the right words. She knew what she wanted to say, and I could tell that this wasn't a lie. At the very least, she definitely believed in what she was saying. To say that Tsumugi was the mastermind was almost ridiculous at this point. We had ruled that out once we realized that the game was still going on after her death. If the mastermind had died, especially the very first victim, then there would be no game. Monokuma wouldn't be up and running, and we wouldn't be having this class trial right now. Whatever was the case, Maki Harukawa believed in what she said. 

"I... I don't think that's the case," I answered as I examined Maki. "It should be pretty obvious why."

"Yeah, Rantaro's right," Kaede whispered as she lowered her head. I could tell without even looking at her that she was distraught about this discovery. "If Tsumugi was the mastermind, then we wouldn't be here right now."

"I realize that," Maki retorted as she finally made eye contact with me. "But you didn't see her when she was in the library. The look on her face as she made her death trap was so... disturbing. Like she was enjoying every minute of it. Her eyes were a lot darker than I've ever seen them."

"Well," Kokichi happily chimed into the conversation, "maybe she was just happy to kill someone to get out of here?"

"No, it was worse than that." Maki frowned, the look on her face making it apparent that she was sifting through her memories. "She was so... happy, to be doing the whole thing. I had a feeling that she was just excited to get the killing game started, since no one had killed each other this entire time. Looking back on it, I don't think she cared at all for getting caught or getting away with it. All she cared about was the kill."

I think I knew what Maki was talking about. As I listened to her explanation, the various pictures from the cameras flashed into my mind. There was one picture in particular that had stuck with me in the worst way possible: the last one. It was the close-up of Tsumugi's face, right before Maki supposedly threw the billiard ball. It was taken moments before her death, but you wouldn't be able to guess that from the twisted smile that was firmly planted on her face. It was a nasty expression, and her eyes looked like they were swirling with horrible intentions. 

Maki was right in her assumption; Tsumugi was clearly getting some sick enjoyment out of this. Sure, this was enough evidence to prove that she was a murderer. But could we really damn her as being the mastermind of this sickening game from just an expression? There was no concrete evidence for any of this, but I could see how Maki's gut feeling would lead her to this conclusion. 

Could Tsumugi have really been the mastermind all along? And what would happen to the rest of us if the mastermind died during their own game? 

"Believe me, I know what it looks like when someone enjoys the kill," Maki spoke as she lowered her head away from my sight. She seemed almost ashamed as she confessed to all of us. "I just wanted to stop her... To stop this stupid killing game before it even started. No one should know what it's like to take another person's life, especially if they don't have to." 

"You speak as if you know from experience," Korekiyo chuckled as he placed a finger over his mask. 

"You should have just told us," Kaede cried out. She was grasping the sides of her podium with all of her might, turning her knuckles white in the process. Her eyes glistened in the light of the court room, and I could tell she was fighting back tears. "You didn't have to handle it all by yourself. No one needed to die today." 

"There was no time," Maki responded. "I didn't want to give Tsumugi the chance to talk her way out of it. If she was the mastermind, she probably had some way of escaping if we tried to confront her. This was the only way I could think off..."

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" Monokuma shouted as he jumped around on his looming chair above us. "At least save it for the end of the trial! Sheesh! Looks like the debate's finished, so that means it's Voting Time! Now press the button in front of you to cast your vote! And make sure you all vote, or else I'll have to punish anyone who refuses to vote!"

The screen that was embedded into the front of my podium flickered on, and bright display of colors danced in my eyes and blinded me for a moment. I lowered my head slightly to closely examine just what exactly I was seeing. The screen displayed the pictures of the fifteen students that were trapped here at this academy. Tsumugi's picture had an enormous red "X" over her picture. I guess that signified that she was no longer competing in this game. 

"At last! The heart-racing excitement as the blackened and the spotless finally face off... IT'S VOTING TIME!"

Monokuma's words echoed throughout my mind as the world seemed to slow down around me. My index finger hovered over the picture of Maki on the display screen, but... I... I couldn't bring myself to press it. My body was completely frozen in place. I wasn't nervous about being wrong with my deductions. No, I had already proven that Maki did it, along with the confession from Maki herself. I didn't notice it until know, but it wasn't fear that I was feeling...

It was guilt.

Was I really about to condemn someone else like this? This whole voting process was cruel, and Monokuma knew it. He wanted me to feel the guilt of sending one of us to be punished. But if we didn't, the rest of us would be the ones to suffer. It was something that I knew I had to do. For everyone else. For myself. 

I... was so sure that I wanted to survive. 

"Rantaro." Maki's voice broke my guilt ridden concentration. She must have noticed my hesitation. "You know what you have to do. You can't run away from this. You owe it to everyone else. Just do it."

She was right. I didn't want her to be right; not like this. She would the one to be punished, but we would have to be the ones that would live with it. I wasn't sure which one of us had it harder. 

"You're right, Maki. I just wish it did have to be this way."

Before I could turn away from the truth, I closed my eyes and let out a deep sigh. I pressed my finger onto the screen, and the picture of Maki flashed. Just like that, I voted to sacrifice someone else to save my own life. 

"Puhuhuhu... It seems that voting has finished. Now then, let's see the result."

A giant television screen was lowered down from the ceiling, stopping right above where Monokuma sat. The screen turned bright white in an instant, revealing the words "RESULTS". Images of all fifteen of us appeared, divided into two columns. Each of us had a bar displayed next to our picture, to show just how many votes each of us had. Everyone's bar was empty, except for Maki's. It was nearly full. She must have even voted for herself. The screen turned immediately black.

We had made our choice. All that was left was to see if it was the right one.

"Who'll be chosen as the blackened!?" Monokuma's voice had more of a deep growl than his normal tone, yet it was still clear that he was enjoying this in his own way. "Will you make the right choice or the dreadfully wrong one!?"

The floor at the center of the circle of the sixteen podiums began to open, and what appeared to be a slot machine rose from the secret door. Pictures of all of our faces were divided into a wheel, with each one of us getting our own section of the circle. My face was displayed right at the top, and was the very first section of the wheel to be caught in the light of the slot machine. 

Then it started.

The light on my picture started to travel clock-wise, continuing onto Kaede's section. The pattern continued until it caught some speed, and the spinner started to make entire rotations on the wheel. Then the spinner slowed down, losing more and more speed as the seconds counted down. My stomach churned and lurched as I awaited for the results.

This was wrong. This shouldn't be happening.

Before I could even finish contemplating my guilt, the spinner finally stopped... On the picture of the Ultimate Caretaker, Maki Harukawa. Every light on the slot machine began to glow and sparkle, and the machine rang with a triumphant tone. To my surprise more arcade coins than I could ever imagine spilled from the bottom section, and made an enormous pile in front of it. I guess that was a good sign.

"Well, at this point it goes without saying, but you all voted correctly!" Monokuma laughed. "The blackened who killed Tsumugi Shirogane is the Ultimate Caretaker, Maki Harukawa!"

"L-Looks like Rantaro was right," Kaede stuttered as she clenched her fist. "Maki was telling the truth. She killed Tsumugi."

I didn't want to be right. I was so confident when I found Maki's slip up, but I found it almost impossible not to feel the guilt that goes with damning a classmate. In a way I killed her just to save myself. 

"But that's not fair!" Kaito shouted as he stepped down from his podium. "Maki was just trying to save us. She thought Tsumugi was the mastermind!"

"Buuuuuuuut," Kokichi retorted as he made his way towards the center of the room, "it turned out that Tsumugi wasn't the mastermind. Otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. She still killed someone, no matter how you look at it." 

"But... But..." Himiko was trying to find the correct words while she fought a stream of tears in her eyes . "She still stopped Tsumugi from killing someone. Even if she wasn't the mastermind, she stopped a murder."

"That doesn't matter," Kokichi quickly responded. "Monokuma made it pretty clear. If you kill someone and get caught, you'll get punished. Murdering a murderer doesn't mean she can walk away from that."

"Hey, shut the hell up!" Kaito shouted as he took a step towards our troublemaker. "Don't act all high and mighty!"

"No," I interrupted almost immediately. "As much I don't want to admit it, Kokichi's has a point."

"Rantaro..." I could hear Kaede's voice come from behind me, but I couldn't bring myself to look at her. She probably wasn't expecting me to agree with Kokichi. 

"See," Kokichi chuckled. "Even Big Bro Rantaro agrees with me." 

"What they hell are you saying, Rantaro?!" Kaito walked right up in front of me and stared me down. "You're actually agreeing with him!? Killing isn't right, but Maki ended up saving one of us. Hell, it could have been you she saved! We don't know!"

She... Could have saved my life?

"You said it yourself, killing isn't right," I argued back, taking a step forward to assert my dominance against Kaito. "To kill someone, even if you think they're the mastermind, doesn't make it right. Especially in a game where the mastermind is actively trying to get us to kill each other. We're just feeding into what they want." 

"Exactly!" Kokichi grinned as he walked to my side, putting his hand on my shoulder. Maybe agreeing with him this one time gave him the idea that we were friends. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. "What mattered most to Monokuma was that the killing game started. As soon as Maki killed someone, she had already lost. Big Bro and I are always on the same page."

"Huh, I see how it is," Kaito growled as he gave me a shove, making me stumble backwards. "You're pretty quick to turn on your friends. I can't see why Kaede even talks to you. Kaede's always trying to get us to work together, meanwhile you and Kokichi are always wandering off and shutting yourself in your rooms. I guess trash stays with trash."

"It's not like that." I staggered back, but luckily Kaede was behind me to catch me and keep me steady. "We can't keep making excuses for each other. If we do, what's stopping one of us from trying to kill the mastermind again? We'll be back here, doing the same thing."

"Stop." Maki's usually quiet voice echoed throughout the trial grounds. "Don't fight with each other. Otherwise you'll never beat the mastermind." 

Maki slowly made her way through the room, weaving in and out of our fellow classmates, until she finally arrived to her intended location: right in front of me. For a moment we were both silent, only looking into each other's eyes. I guess we were trying to read each other's thoughts. Whenever I looked into Maki's eyes before, they always seemed so dark and intimidating. Sure, she was the Ultimate Caretaker, but she didn't have that much of a nurturing tone to her. But this time wasn't like the others. I could see... regret and sadness in there, too.

I wondered, what did she see when see looked into mine?

"I'm... sorry." Those were to only words I could muster. Maybe she could see the guilt and hesitation on my face. 

"Don't be sorry." Maki turned her eyes away from mine. "You did what you had to do to survive. That's the type of attitude everyone needs to have if they want to live. If they can't, they at least need to look up to someone strong if they are all going to survive this stupid game." 

I wasn't strong. I couldn't even stop the mastermind in time before the first murder. I was just a coward afraid to die. 

"I'm not sure if I can be that person. I'm not much of a leader."

"You don't have to be a leader. You just have to kill the mastermind." Those words took my off guard for a moment. "I saw you handle the trial. You have a natural talent for them, whether you want to admit it or not. If there's anyone here that can beat them at their own game, it has to be you."

"But... I... I can't..."

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Monokuma quickly sprinted vetween Maki and myself with his stubby legs, separating us and cutting me off before I could finish my sentence. "Cut it out! We're already running late as it is! I normally don't give this much time after I trial, but I was feeling generous. Never say your headmaster doesn't care about you kids."

"Gonta don't understand," Gonta stammered as he rubbed the back of his head in confusion. "What about to happen?"

"It's time to make things interesting!" Monokuma started to jump up and down, that maddening smile planted firmly on his cotton face. "And now, the moment you've all been waiting for! Punishment Time!"

"Punishment!?" Tenko screamed as she finally made the realization of what was about to happen. "You mean... Maki's execution!?" 

"No friggin' way!" Kaito's voice boomed as he stepped in front of Maki, blocking Monokuma's path. "There's no way we'll let you do that!"

"Do you want to die?" Maki's voice became rather low and dark as she glared as Kaito. 

"What?" We were all taken by surprise by how easy that came out of Maki's mouth.

"If you try to stop him, he's just going to kill you to get to me," Maki exaplained. "Just don't get in the way. Nobody else has to die because of me." 

"But! But!"

"She's riiiiiiiight." Monokuma danced around as he thought about all the possibilities. "It's against the rules to try to stop someone else's punishment. If you do, I'll have no choice but to punish you too!"

"Please, I don't want anyone else to die today."

"Now then..." Monokuma was ignoring everyone else as he began his last speech. 

"Maki..." My words felt hollow as the realization of her looming death was bearing over me. "I'm not the hero that you think I am."

"Let's get started!" Monokuma was not going to stop now, regardless of what we said.

"I'm not asking you to be a hero." Her words were brief and precise. "I'm asking you to win."

"I have a special punishment prepared for the Ultimate Child Caretaker, Maki Harukawa. Let's give it everything we've got! It's... PUNISHMENT TIME!"

Before anyone of us could react, a chain shot out from one of the adjacent doorways of the trial ground, wrapping itself tight around Maki's right hand. Then another chain whipped around the same hallway, this time latching itself to her left hand. Just like that, the two chains lurched backwards and began to drag our friend across the floor, sending her down the hallway at an alarming speed. The enormous television screen that once displayed our voting results flashed on, showing us a live feed of Maki making her way down the hallway. Her execution was starting, and Monokuma was going to make us watch every last minute of it. 

The chains sent Maki into a giant circular room, and finally let go when she reached the middle. The room was filled with various objects fit for taking care of children. Different colored blankets for children were spread around the room, with piles of toys, bottles, and pacifiers littering the ground. Between those piles sat several cribs, with the sounds of crying babies coming from them. 

Monokuma rushed up to her and quickly handed her a bundle of blankets, with what appeared to be a baby wrapped in it. Out of instinct she took the baby, yet kept her angry stare the entire time. Smaller Monokumas began to funnel through the various doorways into the room and flooded the space around her. They were all dressed up as babies and toddlers. Some wore bibs, which held empty glass bottles. Others were dressed up like little boys and girls, each one carrying their own ball to play with. 

As if they all had planned it out and did it in sync, the small Monokumas began to throw whatever they were holding at Maki. She visibly flinched as the glass bottles smashed against her, breaking on contact and covering her in shattered pieces of glass. The rubber balls bounced against her back, making her stagger slightly forward. She continued to hold the baby that Monokuma gave her. 

The brutal attack seemed like it lasted forever to all of us observing, but Maki stayed standing the entire time. She was a lot stronger than any of us here, but everyone has their limits. She slowly fell to her knees, clearly breathing heavily. She had various cuts and bruises over her body, and small droplets of blood rolled down her arms and legs. She couldn't take much more of this abuse. 

Then, almost completely out of nowhere, the attack stopped. All the child Monokumas simply sat there, no longer throwing the bottles and rubber balls at her. Panting heavily, Maki started to examine the baby she was holding. She placed her bruised hand over the blanket that was covering where the face would have been. She lifted the fold of the blanket... Which revealed a baby doll that had Monokuma's face stitched onto it. It let out a loud laugh as its red eye glowed. Almost as if it was on cue, an gigantic rubber ball, larger than any ball should be, fell from the ceiling, landing on top of where Maki was kneeling. 

It was over in an instant. There were no more loud baby noises. No blood. No more Maki. 

The screen turned black as the the television screen turned off and rose back up. It had nothing left to show.

In life, I don't think that anyone is truly ready to watch someone else die. We certainly weren't. Many of us were silent, with shocked and disgusted expressions plastered all over our faces. Tenko and Himiko couldn't stop themselves from crying, and their cries were the only sounds that filled the room. I glared at Monokuma, who was simply sitting in his over sized chair above us all. He didn't say anything to us; he didn't have to. It was far better to have us wallow in the despair that he had made.

I don't really remember much after that. I was in sort of a daze, unable to take everything in. I just remember everyone going into the elevator and going back to the surface, staying silent the entire time. By the time I collected my thoughts, I found myself back in my dorm room alone. For awhile I sat on the edge of my bed, studying the Survivor Perk Monopad in my hands. Maybe if I just examined this Monopad sooner I could have made the discovery of the secret door before Maki killed Tsumugi. Maybe I could have stopped it somehow. Maybe no one had to die.

Huh. Here I am, wallowing in my own guilt and self pity. It almost made me laugh at how pathetic I was in all of this. I was pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things, wasn't I? Some hero I turned out to be. I was so obsessed with staying alive that I wasn't trying to fight the mastermind. The real goal of this killing game hadn't hit me until right now.

It wasn't about outfoxing the other students. It was about beating the mastermind. 

Letting a killing happen was what they mastermind wanted. We all played right into his trap. Because of this two of us were dead, leaving thirteen students, counting myself, left to pick up where we left off. I wasn't sure if this was a war we could win, but the mastermind definitely won this battle. And if more killings happened, it would be up to me and the others to condemn another student for our own lives. 

This feeling was strange... This survivor's guilt. 

A knock on my door brought me back to the real world. I had no idea how long I was sitting in my bed; I had lost track of time. I was certain though that it was late. I lifted the pillow on my bed, quickly hiding the Survivor Perk underneath. I still had to keep it a secret, especially now that emotions were high. After pressing the pillow over the Monopad and fixing it up to look natural, I finally went to my door and turned the doorknob.

"Ahhhhhh, hey." Kaede was standing on the other side of the doorway, sending a small smile my way. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Ahhh, sure," I stammered as I guided her into my room and closed the door behind her. "I imagine you have a lot on your mind. We all do."

"I won't stay long," Kaede assured me as he stood in the center of the room. "I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea, you know? I just wanted to ask you something."

"Something you want to ask me?" I gave a small chuckle as I sat on the edge of my bed. I gave the space next to me a pat, letting Kaede know that she was free to sit there if she liked. She accepted the seat, and sat down next to me. "I'm not sure how helpful I'll be, but ask away."

"Do..." Kaede was slow to pick her words. "Do you think that Maki was telling the truth? That she killed Tsumugi because she thought she was the mastermind?"

"I'm not sure," I responded honestly, keeping my gaze forward onto the wall in front of me. "I guess there's no way to tell for sure. If she was lying, she probably didn't want to die with everyone believing that she was a murderer that tried to save herself. Maybe she even hoped that we would all band together and stop Monokuma from killing her. But she seemed so honest when she was telling us to stick together, like she really wanted us to live on for her."

"That's what I was thinking, too," Kaede agreed as she glanced towards me. "That's not all I wanted to tell you. I just wanted to say that you shouldn't feel guilty."

"Guilty?" I looked back at Kaede sitting next to me, and for a moment we locked eyes. "Why do you think that I feel guilty?"

"I can't lie, you're really hard to read sometimes." She smiled as we both brought our glances forward. "You always keep a smirk on your face, and that calm tone in your voice. You have a really good poke face. " Her smiled faded as she continued. "But back there... in the trial and in the elevator, you looked way more concerned then usual. You were the one that ran the trial, and even made Maki slip up. You were pretty crucial to figuring out who did it. Without you, I don't know what would have happened."

"Yeah, who knows?"

"I just... I just wanted to thank you. You know, for all your help in the trial back there. You were kind of like our hero when we were all panicking."

"Hero, huh?" I don't think heroes usually feel this bad when they do their job. "I don't feel much like a hero right now."

"I'm telling you, even if you don't feel like it, you're a hero, at least to me," Kaede placed her hand over the hand that I had placed in the space next to us. "I can stay and talk if you want to talk about anything."

"Ahhhhhh, no." I turned my face away from her for a moment, hiding the flash of red on my cheeks. I really wasn't good at stuff like this. I wish I had a hat to cover up my face. "I think I just want to be alone for tonight. I'm exhausted."

"Yeah, that totally makes sense." Kaede let out a small giggle as she rose from the side of my bed and made her way to the door. "Oh, one more thing before I go. I just wanted to ask you to come to breakfast tomorrow morning, with everyone else."

"Breakfast?"

"Yeah, we've all been meeting up at the cafeteria and eating breakfast together. I don't think any of us told you yet since you've been spending a lot of your time in your room."

"I'll sleep on it."

"Please show up tomorrow. Don't shut me out." Kaede's cheeks turned a dark shade of pink when she realized what she said. "I mean don't shut us all out. We're all your friends, so we all want to help each other out!"

"Okay." I laughed slightly at all of this. "I'll come to breakfast tomorrow."

"Great!" Kaede hastily turned around and open the door behind her. "Goodnight, Rantaro! See you at breakfast!"

When Kaede closed the door, I brought my attention back to my pillow. I slid my hand underneath and held the Survivor Perk in my hands once again. I navigated through the menus that flashed up on the screen and scrolled through all the maps that were given to me. I paused on the map of the library, the secret door regaining my attention. If Tsumugi was truly the mastermind, she would have known that I would have seen a secret room in the library that no one else had discovered. She clearly had a target in mind when she made the trap with the shotput ball. I doubt she was just leaving it up to chance for a victim to stumble upon it. if she was the mastermind, was I her intended target? How close was I to being the victim myself? To have everyone else solve my murder?

After all, without Maki's interference, odds are that I would have been the first one in the library when I went to examine the secret door. The camera flash would have went off, and maybe I would have investigated. Nothing wanting to be photoed with my Survivor Perk, I probably would have tried to take the camera. Touching the camera at all would have set the shotput ball off balance, making it fall on my head, killing me instantly. This was all speculation at this point, but just how close was I to being a victim? 

Was Maki justified in killing Tsumugi? Was Tsumugi trying to kill me? If she was the mastermind, but then died, would it be possible to even continue the game? I don't know what to think anymore. But if Maki was telling the truth, then I know one thing for sure...

Thank you, Maki Harukawa. For giving me a second chance.


	5. Daily Life: Relax

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait again! Writer's block and real life get in the way sometimes. lol.
> 
> Anyway, I just wanted to thank everyone for reading! I had this whole story planned out with Rantaro, but I never expected anybody to read and be interested in it. lol. I'm really excited for these next chapters, because I always wanted to explore Rantaro's relationship with the other students! Hopefully he'll have some cool interactions with your favorite character(s)... If they're still alive. 
> 
> Also, I'm gonna try to put myself on a sort of schedule for this. That way these updates are a little more consistent than they are now. 
> 
> Enjoy!

I woke up early the next morning, and tried to prepare myself for breakfast. I wasn't quite used to waking up so early, especially after what had happened yesterday. I wasn't able to turn my mind off, so I just tossed and turned in bed the entire night. I didn't get much sleep, and I'm not that much of a morning person to begin with. Oh well. Everyone was waiting for me, and maybe it would help me out if I wasn't so paranoid, or at least not make it so obvious to everyone else. 

I rubbed the sleepiness out of my eyes as I tucked away the Survivor Perk underneath my mattress. Sure, it wasn't a great hiding spot, but it would work for now. I planned on creating a much more difficult hiding spot for the secret Monopad later, when I had more time. I couldn't let the others see my secret; not now, anyway. It would just draw suspicion to me, before I even knew what the Survivor Perk meant myself. The only one that wouldn't outright label me as an outcast was Kaede, but I still couldn't bring myself to show her. Not yet. 

Just as I finished hiding the Monopad, I heard a series of spastic knocks at my bedroom door. My first thought was that it was Kaede, making sure that I actually went to breakfast with everyone this morning. I quickly cast that thought away as soon as I heard that the knocking intensified. Kaede wasn't so... forceful. I went up to my bedroom and slowly opened it, peaking through the crack to see who it was. 

It was Tenko and Himiko, waiting outside my door. 

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh," Tenko stammered as she searched for the right words. "Hey, Rantaro. W-What are you up to today?"

"Um," I stuttered, shifting my gaze between the two of them. "Hey there. I'm just, you know, waking up." 

"What a coincidence!" Tenko shouted as she clapped her hands together. "We were just doing the same thing!"

"Ahhhh, yeah." 

"It's pretty nice outside today," Himiko added, ignoring my comment. "It would be a shame to stay inside all day."

"But it's a controlled environment," I continued, placing my hand on my chin. "The weather's always sunny." 

It was really strange to have both Tenko and Himiko at my door, trying to make small talk. They had never done something like this before, and they looked visibly nervous, like they were trying to think on their feet. They weren't too great at it. I thought for a moment, trying to come up with some sort of explanation for their odd behavior.

"Wait a minute," I hummed as I rubbed my chin and shifted my gaze upwards as I thought. "Did Kaede tell you two to come here to make sure I go to breakfast this morning?"

"WHAAAAAAT!?" Tenko gave out an enourmous, and clearly shaken, scream. "OF COURSE NOT! WE'RE JUST HERE TO SEE HOW YOU WERE DOING!"

That answered my question.

"She did, didn't she?"

'D-Don't be silly." Himiko started to sweat slightly, refusing to look me in the eye. "But since you said something about breakfast, you must be really hungry."

"That's right!" Tenko laughed as she regained her composure. "Even degenerate males need to start the day off right with a hefty breakfast!" 

I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle. They were trying their best to seem nonchalant and smooth. It wasn't working, but I didn't have the heart to crush their confidence like that. I was going to the cafeteria anyway. I might as well play along. Besides, I wasn't that big of a fan of Tenko and Himiko being so close to my room. The Survivor Perk was hiding inside, and having them find it was definitely not an option. 

"You're right." I played along, throwing up my hands in a defeated shrug. "I am pretty hungry. Do you two want to go eat in the cafeteria?"

"Why yes," Himiko murmured in a robotic tone, almost as if she was reciting a line she had practiced beforehand. "Let us go eat breakfast together in the cafeteria. 

Remind me never to ask Tenko and Himiko for a favor like that. 

It only took us a few minutes to arrive at the cafeteria. The hallways were empty as we made our way. I figured that everyone else had already made it for breakfast. Kaede did say that her and Kaito were rounding up everyone to have breakfast together today. Tenko and Himiko walked a step or two behind me, shadowing me every step of the way. They were really keen on making sure that I went to breakfast. What did Kaede tell them to make them so... What's the right word? Aggressive? Maybe in their own strange way. Kaede must not have been completely sure I was coming this morning. I couldn't blame her. I've pretty much been a shut-in for most of the time I've been here. 

When I came to the doors of the cafeteria, I didn't waste any time making my way inside. I didn't want Tenko and Himiko to sweat anymore than they already have. I heard murmurs from behind the door, signaling that everyone was indeed already there. As soon as I opened the double doors, i could finally make out what everyone was saying. 

"Writing?" Keebo looked confused and perplexed as he said this, obviously thinking it over in his robotic mind. 

"Yeah!" Gonta exclaimed with a sparkle in his eye, like he had found something that he was extremely proud of. "Like someone trying to hide writing in grass. Weird, right!?" 

"Hmmmm..." Angie closed her eyes as she clapped her hands together over her head. "Atua says it's just graffiti. Nyahahahahaha! Now we don't gotta worry about it anymore!"

"Atua?" Himiko yawned as she made her way towards the center of the room, her mission of getting me here finally completed. "That's even more suspicious... "

"Oh?" Angie pressed her cheeks together with her hands as she made her way to Himiko. "Are you saying that Atua is suspicious? How sad." 

"Nyeeeh." Himiko looked slightly uncomfortable of Angie's gaze. "That's none of your business."

"What's up with you guys?" Kaito questioned as he leaned back in the chair he was sitting in. "Are you still talking about that graffiti?"

Writing? Graffiti? What were they talking about? From using context clues from the conversation that I just heard, it sounded like Gonta had just found a message of some kind, and he was telling the others of his findings. Some of them looked interested. Some looked like they were quick to dismiss it. Whatever it was, I was certainly out of the loop.

"What graffiti?" My words suddenly broke the flow of the conversation, and everyone looked like they weren't expecting me to interrupt them. 

"Rantaro!" Kaede shouted as she shot up from her seat at the table, her light eyes meeting mine from across the room. "You actually came."

Was it really that unbelievable that I would come to breakfast? It had to be, because everyone else looked just as excited or confused once they noticed my presence. 

"Yeah," I chuckled as I nodded my head in Tenko and Himiko's direction, "I had a couple friends following me around, making sure I came to breakfast this morning."

"Ahhhhhhhh," Tenko stammered for a second. "I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"We just wanted to make sure you ate your breakfast," Himiko retorted, a slight blue hue on her face. "It's the most important meal of the day. It helps me refill my mana, so I can do even more maaaaaagic."

"Oh yes," Kirumi interjected, ignoring the last part of Himiko's statement. "I've prepared breakfast for everyone."

"You made breakfast for everyone?" I asked as I made my way to the large table at the center of the room. I eyed the various seats surrounding it, examining where everyone was sitting. I decided to place my hand on the seat across from Kaede, claiming it as my own. Then I noticed a small blur move behind me and stop at the seat to my right. It looked like Kokichi was trying to sit next me. 

"Indeed," Kirumi continued as she moved to the kitchen section of the cafeteria. "I have made an Italian omelet, buttermilk pancakes, smoked salmon galette... I have even prepared rice balls and miso soup for those that prefer Japanese cuisine.

In a matter of seconds she came back to the dining area, carrying plate after plate of food. It baffled me just how much food she made for a simple breakfast, and the sheer amount of plates that she could carry on her own. She easily slid the plates towards the center of the table, and they stopped perfectly in place. It was clear that she had done this so many times before. I shouldn't have doubted the talents of the Ultimate Maid herself. She really could do anything. 

"Kirumi," Kokichi exclaimed as he slammed his fist onto the table, "be my mom!"

"What are you even saying?" Keebo asked asked from across the table, unable to really make sense of Kokichi. He wasn't the only one. 

"Anyway," I started, trying to change the subject into something more productive, "thanks Kirumi for making breakfast. I would have helped out if I had known sooner. You must have woken up early to make all this."

"Nonesense," Kirumi corrected as she finished putting the plates in front us. "It's my duty as a maid to serve to the best of my ability, so I would have to politely decline your offer of help."

Kirumi obviously didn't joke around when it came to her service. Her understandable pride as a maid wouldn't allow her to receive help from the people she was serving. Kirumi was definitely an enormous asset while trapped in this school, but we shouldn't take her for granted. She was a human being, too.

I lifted the fork next to my plate that was placed by Kirumi, and examined the Italian omelette in front of me. The presentation of the food alone was rather impressive, and I almost felt bad for eating it and ruining the sight, but the fresh aroma that came from it was telling me otherwise. As expected, it tasted even better than it looked, as a wide array of flavors filled my mouth. It was unlike anything I had eaten before. It was sure better than any omelette I had ever made for my sisters. 

I looked around the room for moment, noticing that no one else was speaking. They were so engrossed in the amazing food that no once bothered to speak for now. Everyone looked happy and satisfied as they ate their breakfast, enjoying the first moment of relaxation we all had in the past day or so. It felt almost cruel to break the peaceful silence, but something had been bothering me the minute I entered the cafeteria.

"By the way," I said as I placed my fork onto my plate, "what was this about finding graffiti."

"Oh right, you weren't here yet when we were talking about it," Kaede exclaimed, whipping her mouth with the napkin that was folded on her lap. "Gonta found a weird stone outside with writing on it that no one noticed before."

"Writing on a stone?" I repeated, finding it just as strange as the others did. "What does it say?"

"Oh, Gonta can answer!" Gonta looked rather proud to be answering my question. "Weird stone said 'Horse A'." 

Horse A? Now that was bizarre. Honestly it just sounded like a lot of nonsense, without any sort of meaning. It wasn't even a riddle that we had to solve; it was far more random than that. Not to mention that it didn't seem to connect with anything that we had discovered yet. I would hardly call it a message. 

"Horse A?" I hummed as I brought my finger to my chin in deep thought. "Did any of us write the message? 

"It appears that none of us are claiming to have written it," Korekiyo answered in his hushed tone. "If it's true that no one here in this room had wrote it, then it is possible that it was left by the mastermind."

"Even if that's true," Kaede interjected, "what does it even mean?" 

"It doesn't mean anything!" Kaito rose from his seat as he posed in a heroic fashion. "It's not even a message or a warning! It's just a random word with a letter. We can't let the mastermind toy around with us, making us worry about stuff that isn't even important." 

Kaito did have a point. If that cryptic message was left by the mastermind, it was possible that they had just left it there to mess with us. Maybe they left a nonsense clue to have us try to make meaning where none existed. If that's the case, we would be so focused on the message that we wouldn't put our time and effort into find out the identity of our warden. On the other hand, if the message did have some sort of important meaning, we would be ignoring it to fight in a battle we couldn't win without it. Both seemed rather bleak, to say the least. 

"Who fuckin' cares about a stupid message?" Miu let out an obnoxious laugh as she placed her hands on her hips. "If the gorgeous blonde genius herself can't decode it, there's no hope for you fuckin' virgins."

"Will you shut up?" Kokichi shot her a fierce look for a brief moment before his face went back to that mischievous smile. "The adults are talking now."

"Ahhhhhhhhh." Miu crumpled under pressure again, letting her tears role down her face. "I was just trying to help."

"Odds are that the mastermind is playing a trick on us," Ryoma suggested, tipping his hat forward to hid his eyes from the rest of us. "Maybe even to try to break us into different groups and start a fight."

"That's a good point," I agreed, trying to be more vocal among everyone. "If it is a message for us to use, we have no idea how to use it now. If it's a fake, we can continue to ignore it. We should just wait a see." 

"I agree with Rantaro," Keebo smiled as he pointed in my direction. "Using basic reasoning, it seems like the most logical solution." 

"Yeah," Monokuma said as he sat in the chair next to me. "Rantaro's always right, isn't he?"

For a moment, none of us realized just what exactly happened. All thirteen of us were enjoying a nice breakfast together, forgetting about our worries and actually getting along with one another. I seemed as if it was too good to be true, and we were right. There sat Monokuma next me, and I wasn't entirely sure how long he had been there. For such a loudmouth teddy bear, he was surprisingly quiet when he had to be. Needless to say, everyone jumped in their seat once the realization hit. 

"Woah!" Kaito shouted, standing up almost immediately in his seat. "Monokuma!? What the hell are you doing here!? 

"Awwwwwwww." Monokuma looked down towards the ground, obviously disappointed in our reaction of his appearance. "You guys always look so mad whenever I'm around. I'm just trying to hang out with the cool kids."

"Y-You think I'm cool," Miu stuttered as she squirmed around in her seat. 

"No," Kokichi coldly snapped back. "Now don't let it go to your pea-sized brain."

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh."

"Ah, anyway," I began, changing the subject into something else. "Why are you here, Monokuma? Regardless of what you say, you obviously have a reason for showing up."

"You know me all too well, Randy." I wish he would stop calling me Randy. "I have a super-cool, super-special announcement to tell you all! New areas of the school are now open for you to discover!"

"New areas?" Kaede repeated in confusion. "Like more rooms of the school are open now?"

"You better believe it!" Monokuma shouted as he stood up in his chair. "But I'm not gonna tell you what's open. You're gonna have to figure that out for yourselves. Sayonara!" 

Before any of us could ask him another question, the small bear bolted out of the room like a flash, leaving the cafeteria doors swinging back and forth from his amazing speed. He sure was fast for not having normal feet. 

"What do we do?" Keebo asked as he froze in place, unsure of what to do next. 

"We don't really have much of a choice," I responded, folding my arms across my chest in the process. "We have explore the school. New areas we haven't seen yet might help us figure out what 'Horse A' actually means." 

"I was just about to say that!" Kaito put one foot up on his seat and struck another heroic looking pose. "We need to keep exploring the school! We just might find a way out of here that we haven't found yet."

I doubted it. The mastermind was too meticulous and calculating to allow a slip-up like that. If we were going to find a way out of the school, it would have to be in a way that the mastermind could never predict. Looking at our options at this point, we weren't really in the predicament to do anything like that as of now. I didn't want to tell my classmates this, though. No need to cause any extra despair when it was already hard to find hope. 

"Yeah!" Kaede shot up from her seat. "We should all split up and explore the school! If you find anything, we'll report back here tomorrow morning and tell the rest of the group."

Looks like we had a plan, even if it seemed a little simple for now. I stayed in my seat while everyone moved around the room and broke up into groups. One thing caught my eye, though. Looking back, it wasn't anything too odd. In fact, no one else in the room even noticed it. But I did, and it startled me for some reason.

"Owwww." Himiko clutched her stomach and arched her back forward, clearly in pain. "My stomach hurts."

"Oh no, Himiko!" Tenko screamed as she ran to Himiko's side. "Are you okay!? You must have eaten too fast!"

"Nyeeeeeeh," Himiko wheezed as she clenched her fists. "No, it's that I have too much mana stored."

"Oh, what is this?" Angie lowered her head down to get face-to-face with Himiko. "It seems you are in pain. Don't worry, Atua's touch can cure any ailments."

Before Himiko could protest to Angie's weird methods, Angie embraced her, nesting the young magician's head right beneath her chin. At first she looked shocked to be hugged without any sort of warning by Angie, but then Himiko's eyes began to glow with a sense a ease. Her body seemed to go limp within Angie's arms, and she even wrapped her small hands around Angie. Tenko's face was beaming red, probably out of jealousy, wishing she was the one hugging Himiko. 

"Nyeeeeeeeh? My stomach feels fine now."

"That is the power of Atua! He heals all that follow him! All he demands in return is your love, and sometimes a sacrifice." 

"Atua?" Himiko was definitely intrigued by Angie's description of her god. "What is Atua like?"

"Hey, Rantaro."

Almost as if I was entranced by the sight, a familiar voice broke my concentration and brought me back to reality. I raised my head from my palm; I must have been resting my head on my hand. How long was I watching the scene in front of me? I shook my head and refocused my eyes somewhere else. I looked slightly to the left, back to where the voice was calling me. It was Kaede. 

"Hey, are you okay?" Kaede asked me with a hint of concern on her face. "You seemed to be zoning out over there."

"No, no, I'm fine." I sat back in my seat. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"I was asking if you wanted to explore together?" She quickly rose from her seat, ready to leave the cafeteria. "It would be easier to find clues if we look together." 

I thought about it for a moment. Monokuma had said that new areas of the school were now available to explore. Kaede and I did prove to work well together, especially during the investigation for the trial. In a way, we were one hell of a team, picking up on things that the other didn't. Maybe we made up for each other's weaknesses. Or maybe that was taking things a little too seriously, and we just found it easy to talk to each other.

However, I knew that I had to start exploring by myself. I made a promise to myself to stop being so paranoid and join the others, but it was more than just paranoia now. The Survivor Perk that was "gifted" to me made me realize that there were clues here that were meant specifically for me. Somehow the mastermind had singled me out among all the students, giving me hints to some big picture that I couldn't put together yet. These clues seemed so important, but I had no idea how to put them together. I was sure that I didn't even have all the pieces yet. That meant that the mastermind would leave bread crumbs for me to follow. If that was the case, I couldn't let the others know about it, not even Kaede. Not yet at least. I made up my mind that I was explore alone for now. 

"Ahhh, sorry," I apologized, knowing full well that it wouldn't look all that great for me. "I'm gonna stay here for a little bit, and then investigate later. I didn't get that much sleep last night, so I'm a little dizzy right now." 

"Oh," Kaede whimpered, looking a tad disappointed at my response. "That's fine. We can talk about what we find later with each other. Make sure you take it easy, Rantaro. Feel better, okay?" 

"Thanks, I'll definitely take it easy this morning," I assured her as I took a sip of water from my glass in front of me. "I'll tell you if I find anything strange."

Kaede walked out of the cafeteria, leaving my by myself at the table. I looked back at where Himiko, Angie, and Tenko were once talking, but they had been long gone. Angie's face as she lured in Himiko with a hug flashed into my mind for a brief moment, but I quickly pushed it out of my head. All the talk about Atua... Did Angie really believe in everything she said? Himiko sure did, and that made me feel a bit uneasy. 

No time to think about the small stuff now. It didn't concern me, and there were far more pressing matters at hand, like finding more clues. Due to my lie to Kaede, I sat at the cafeteria table for around half an hour. The one thing worse than a lie is getting caught in a lie. Kaede had faith me, for some reason, so I would feel pretty bad if she realized that I lied to her. I had to make sure that I didn't make a habit out lying while I was stuck in here. 

Once I made sure enough time had went by, I was off. It took me an hour of exploring the hallways of the second floor to realize that something was different. The end of the hallway, across the staircase, seemed to go on longer than I had remembered. 

"Was there always this intersection here?"

I noticed that to the left of me lead to areas that I had been well aware of and had been down many times before when I was looking for a way out of here. In front of me, though, was a door at the end of the hallway. By the look of it, it looked like another Ultimate Laboratory, made specifically for one of the Ultimate students trapped in this school. That wasn't there yesterday. I did find it strange that there were only a few Ultimate Labs available to us when we woke up in here; there were fifteen students and only a handful of labs. Even before this discovery I figured that we would find the other rooms eventually. I guess today is going to be that day. 

I opened the door, and was greeted to a rather large room with decorative candles lining the room and the windows covered by nice crimson curtains. There was a nicely crafted table in the center of the room, with three mannequins seated in each chair around the table. Plates full of food were set in front of them, like they had recently been placed there. Across the table was a white wood panel wall, clearly showcasing that it was meant to be a storage room of some kind. I would have to remember to investigate it right away once I was done scanning the room. One thing was for sure: the room gave off an antique vibe. Was this room meant for the Ultimate Maid?

"These appear to be Victorian." 

A voice from behind startled me for a moment, and I quickly turned around in response. Luckily, it was a face that was familiar to me: it was just Kirumi. It looked like she had followed just behind me when I entered the lab. She walked so quietly that I didn't even hear her coming. I wondered if she gathered that skill from all the maid work she had done. She had to be pretty quick on her feet to keep up with all the demands thrown her way. 

"These decorations adorned the British Empire at the peak of Queen Victoria's reign," she added as she walked past me and further into the room. "This... must be my research lab. During the Victorian era, employing a maid was considered a status symbol."

"I was thinking the same thing," I responded to her as I made my way to the table in the room, closely examining the mannequins in their seats. "This room does seem to fit your style, Kirumi." 

"In the Victorian era, many servants lived beneath the manors in which they were employed," Kirumi continued. "They were known as the "downstairs people," as a stark reminder of their lower station."

Now that she mentioned it, it wasn't so bizarre for a maid to live with the family they were serving. It reminded me of the maid that my family had so long ago. She lived in a separate part of the mansion that belonged to my family... Well, belonged to my father. He was the one with all the money, made all the decisions. I want to say that I lived with him for most of my life, but saying "live" wouldn't be too accurate. He was always away, off on some business trip or another. Probably with whatever number wife he was with at the time. I didn't see much of my mother, so I don't really have too many memories with her. I barely even remembered her face. She was out of my life while I was still really young. I guess having no memories of her is better than having bad memories with her, right? 

"Rantaro, may I have a moment of your time?" Kirumi's words broke me out of my own self-pity. "Your sleeve appears to be torn." 

"Huh?" I looked down towards my right sleeve, and saw a small hole at the seem. "Oh, yeah, you're right... I must've caught it on something." 

"Shall I repair it?" Kirumi walked up to me and put a hand on the torn sleeve. "You need not hesitate. My utmost desire is to serve others." 

"Are you sure? Thank you, I would appreciate that." 

"Please change out of your torn shirt and give it to me."

Right here? I didn't have a change of clothes to swap into while she repaired my shirt with me. I would feel a little awkward walking around the school shirtless and have everyone stare at me like that. I needed my privacy. 

"Ahhhh, let me go back to my dorm room and change my shirt really fast."

"You do not need to wash it," she said as she followed me towards the exit. "I will make sure it is laundered before returning it." 

"That would be absolutely perfect," I laughed as we made our way down the hallways and towards the exit of the school. "You're something else, Miss Ultimate Maid... Makes me feel kind of nostalgic." 

"I hope you are not feeling nostalgic because I remind you of your mother."

Kirumi had a more stern expression on her face after she said that. It wasn't my intention to say that she was a mother, not like some people in this school. It went a little deeper than just that. She reminded me of someone really important in my life. 

"Haha, no, no," I reassured her as we made our way outside. "We had a maid at my house a long time ago, is all. I don't think she was as spectacular as you, but to a kid... If felt like she could do anything."

"She sounds like quite the fantastic maid."

"Yeah," I recalled as we stopped right outside of the dorms. "She was nice, took care of everyone... Heh, we were always fighting over her. It was silly kid stuff, like who got to have her read a bedtime story to them first..." 

"I see." Kirumi gave me a bright yet simple smile as she listened to my story. "That is a heartwarming story." 

"Haha, yeah. I suppose those were good times. All of us treated her like a second mother." I realized what I said, and waved my hands in front of my face in embarrassment. "Oh, but, I'm not comparing her to you or anything, you know? "

"I understand." She closed her eyes and smiled. "Perhaps your maid's utmost desire was for you to trust her enough to see her that way." 

"Maybe." I went up to the door of my bedroom and turned the knob. "I'll be right out. I'll change shirts and give you this one." 

I went into my room, with plenty of thoughts still traveling in my mind. Talking with Kirumi brought up so many different memories in my past, many of which I haven't thought about in some time now. How long had it been since I thought about our family's maid? A couple years, at least. Without a parent at our house, all the kids, myself included, looked up to her. She was like the mother that many of us didn't have. As the oldest out of all of the kids, I used to have the advantage when trying to get her attention. I used to help her out with her jobs around the house whenever she let me, and she was so easy to talk to. Sometimes I would even pretend to hurt my knee while I was outside just to have her take care of me for a couple minutes. It was just stupid kid stuff, really. But... I really missed her. I always felt guilty that I never told her myself just how much I appreciated everything she did for me. 

"Hey, Kirumi," I said with the old shirt in hand and wearing a new one. "Just out of curiosity, what do you do for yourself while you're in her?"

"Well," she thought for a moment, "I like to prepare breakfast for everyone in the morning, and then prepare everyone's laundry, making sure everyone's uniforms are both clean and perfectly folded. And then..." 

"No, no," I interrupted her as I handed her the shirt. "Not so much what you do for everyone else, but what exactly do you do for yourself?" 

"I believe I don't truly understand what you are asking me." Kirumi looked rather confused as she analyzed my question. "My duties as a maid means that my desire is to serve others." 

"That's really nice of you Kirumi, it is... But don't you ever have desires for yourself? Things that you want to do that won't necessarily help others, but will be good for you?"

"If I fulfill tasks that are only beneficial for myself, then I would be ignoring my duties. I cannot allow that." 

It was just as I thought. She was so focused on helping everyone else out that she ignored doing things for herself. While that made her really selfless, that was still no way to live your entire life. Sometimes it was good to do things for yourself, even if they didn't affected anyone else. 

"Hey, can you come to the cafeteria with me?" I asked her, knowing full well that she was be inclined to meet my request. "I have a job for you."

"I will do everything in my power to make sure your demands are fulfilled." 

Perfect, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. The walk to the cafeteria from the dorms only took a few minutes, as we used the outdoor entrance to get in. I walked to the cafeteria table at the center of the room, making sure that Kirumi stayed behind me the entire time. Then I spun around to face her. 

"What is it that you request me to do?" 

She was very to the point.

"I want you to sit down at this table," I responded as I pulled out a seat. "You don't have to do anything but sit here." 

"But what is it that I can do from here?" Kirumi questioned as she hesitantly sat down in the chair that I pulled out for her, uneasy yet still following my request. "Shall I prepare lunch from here? Is this a test of my skills?"

"No, no, it's nothing that serious." I smiled as I rubbed the back of my head. "I'm going to be the one serving you. I know it's a little early for lunch, but I figured that I make you something light. Maybe some soup?"

"That is not an acceptable request." She stood up in her chair almost immediately. "I cannot allow you to perform a task that I could easily do in half the amount of time it would take you to complete it. What typeof soup would you like? Chicken noodle? Perhaps if you want a Japanese cuisine, I could make you miso soup." 

"That's not what I mean," I chuckled in embarrassment, but I kept gesturing her to sit down and relax again. "You're so busy helping everyone else, it's time that we do something for you. It is my request that you sit down and enjoy yourself."

"But... But..." 

I could tell that she was caught in some sort of paradox. She wanted to fulfill my request of her to sit down and relax, but it went against what she thought her duties should be. How could she meet my demands if that meant that she did nothing? To be honest, I was hoping that this would be the reaction she would have. Kirumi was always moving, both physically and mentally, so I had to slow her down if I wanted to do something for her. 

"I'm telling you, just sit down and relax," I reassured her as I walked towards the kitchen area. "It's not going to be as good as what you make, but I know my way around the kitchen. I used to make soup for my sisters all the time a couple years ago, so I do know what I'm doing. Well, at least a little bit."

"But... But..."

I didn't stay for her to make some form of argument. I knew she would try everything to protest this, but I already made up my mind that I was going to do this for her. I don't really know why exactly I wanted to do this. Maybe I just like Kirumi and wanted her to treat herself sometimes? Or maybe I felt guilty for never telling my maid how much I appreciated her, and this was my way of forgiving myself? I knew that doing this for Kirumi would never ease my mind about her, but I felt like I had do this. Either way, I was going to make sure Kirumi would enjoy her time off. 

A few minutes had gone by and I already had the ingredients stirring in the boiling pot of water. I was doing this all off of memory, so I was hoping that I was doing this right. Surprisingly, unlike my Ultimate Talent, there weren't any glaring holes missing in my memory to make soup.

"Hmmmmmmm," I hummed out loud as a rested my chin in my hand. "What would make this soup better?"

"A pintch of salt adds flavor to the broth."

"That's a good idea." I froze for a second, realizing what just happened. "Wait a minute. Kirumi? What Are you doing in here?"

"I have already prepared multiple ingredients that you can add in order to add flavor to the soup."

Kirumi slid bowl full of a variety of chopped vegetables towards me. 

"Did you chop all of these vegetables behind me?" I asked stunned, examining the perfectly chopped ingredients in the bowl she had given me. "Wait... How did you do that without me noticing?"

"It only took me a few minutes to prepare them," Kirumi answered as she moved to the sink. "I can also prepare you a drink of lemonade for your lunch while I am here."

"No, no, no, stop!" I hurriedly put the bowl of vegetables on the counter and walked towards the sink. "If you help out with the soup, it defeats the whole purpose of this! You need to relax!" 

"I fail to see how aiding you with making soup will ruin my enjoyment," Kirumi retorted as I tried to guide her back to cafeteria. 

"It's my request that you sit down and relax," I answered. "Please, just let me do this for you. You need to let people do things for you every once in awhile."

After some time had went by, I finally finished making the soup for Kirumi and poured it into bowl. I placed in onto a serving tray, neatly folding the napkin in a triangle, which was a trick that my maid had taught me when I used to help her with dinner, and set it next to bowl. I poured water into a glass, making sure not to add too much that it would spill when I walked with the tray. After all, half the fight of making good food was the presentation.

"Okay, Kirumi," I announced with a smile on my face as I entered the cafeteria with the tray. "Sorry it took so long. Hopefully you'll enjoy it!"

When I went back to the table, I noticed just how much food was waiting for me at the table. An entire cooked turkey was displayed on the table, surrounded by various sliced fruits and vegetables on a platter. A glass of freshly squeezed lemonade sat on the end of the table, and the chair was pulled out, with Kirumi waiting for me to sit down with a smile on her face. 

"I've prepared a smoked turkey lunch with freshly squeezed lemonade," Kirumi explained as I set the tray down in front of the seat next to me. "I know this may be too much food for one individual, especially so soon after breakfast, but I hope you enjoy it."

"How did you make this without me noticing?" I asked, but then I couldn't help but let out a sigh. "Alright, you win. I'll eat the lunch you made... But only if you eat lunch with me." 

"I..." Kirumi seemed unsure at first, but then she looked at the tray I had made for her. "I will happily accept your request." 

Kirumi sat down next to me and pulled the tray of food I prepared closer to her. I looked at her for a moment, knowing that this was far beyond her comfort zone. I knew the lunch I had made for her was nowhere near as good as what she made me, but... she still ate it with a warm smile on her face. She didn't necessarily like that I made her food; I could tell that she would have preferred to be working on something else for me by now. But I couldn't help but smile myself when I noticed the attempt to fulfill my request for her: to sit down and relax. I'm sure she would keep trying to serve others, that was just who she was, but... I was glad she down and ate with me. We enjoyed each other's company and lunch. 

"It still needs a pinch of salt." 

It was start.


	6. Daily Life: A Reason To Live

After my lunch with Kirumi, we decided to split up and search the school, knowing full well that there were more places to find. My instincts were telling me to check upstairs on the second floor, as I hadn't search that entire area yet. It looked like my instincts were right though, since I saw a new hallway right in front of me once at reached the top of the stairs. Like before, I could the see the entrance of what appeared to be a new Ultimate Lab waiting to be discovered. 

I examined the door for a second, and didn't notice anything too spectacular, except for the image of a tennis racket on the front. At least with the Ultimate Maid Lab, the outside door had a nice finish to it, signifying just how high class being that Ultimate really was. This, though, was a completely different kind of door. This had to be the door to the Ultimate Tennis Pro Lab. I could tell this was one of the less "flashy" Ultimate Talents in this school, but no talent is useless. Hell, at least everyone besides me actually remembers their talent. I would have to fix that eventually, or at the very least make sure no one noticed just how much that fact bothered me. I could have a good poker face when it came down to it. 

Once I made my decision, I didn't waste any time entering the Ultimate Lab. Even though the door outside told me everything I needed to know, the inside was completely different. The room was rather big, with plenty of space to move around. I guess that came with the territory though, as the most notable feature in the room was the tennis net in the middle. That's when I noticed the lines of chalk lining the floor. Almost the entire room was a tennis court, with various tennis rackets, balls, and other workout equipment laying about. There was even a gigantic machine spinning around in a circle, twirling tennis equipment in place. 

I am no detective, but I could deduce one thing: I was right and this had to be the Ultimate Tennis Pro Lab. 

"Oh, hey, Rantaro."

I quickly turned my head to the left, following the familiar tone of the voice. I was so focused on examining the Lab that I completely missed Kaede to the left of me. From what I could see, she was examining the tennis equipment that was off to the side of the room. 

"Oh, ahhh, hey."

"I was just checking out this new Ultimate Lab," Kaede explained as she walked towards me. "I'm guessing this is Ryoma's Lab. Oh, and I'm glad you're up and moving! You must be feeling better." 

"Yeah, yeah," I responded, making sure to keep up with my lie from earlier. "I'm feeling a lot better now, but I figured that I had to investigate the new areas of the school right away. Speaking of which, have you found any clues or anything strange?" 

"No, nothing too weird," she answered as she put her hand on her chin in deep thought. "I did find the Ultimate Maid Lab, though."

"Yeah, I found that, too," I said, noticing that she was getting a little closer to me than my personal space usually allowed for. "So, ahhh, were you exploring the school alone?"

'No, I was searching the school with Kaito." Kaede gave a cute chuckle as she leaned in slightly. "But he disappeared after I went to the bathroom, and I have no idea where he went."

"Kaito, huh?"

"Um, Rantaro," Kaede said as the expression on her face quickly shifted to a much more serious tone. "I'm not trying to start any trouble, but..."

"But...?"

"I don't think Kaito likes you very much," she finally explained. "He was saying that I should keep an eye on you, since you don't seem trustworthy."

I wasn't too surprised by this news. Kaito did seem really upset with my yesterday after the trial, especially after I defended Kokichi. There was a natural animosity between him and our personal troublemaker, so he probably thought I had taken Kokichi's side. That meant that I was just as untrustworthy as Kokichi, at least as far as Kaito went. I couldn't blame him. Maybe he was right. I have been starting to lie more. To everyone.

"Did he now?" I placed my hand on my chin for moment. "I can't really blame him. He's probably still mad at me from the trial yesterday. I guess it doesn't look that great when I stick up for Kokichi."

"Don't worry, though. " Kaede sent a warm smile my way. "I still trust you. i know you wouldn't do anything bad to me. You're my friend." 

"Hahaha," I let out a nervous laugh as I rubbed the back of my head with my hand. "Yeah, we're friends. I, ahhh, definitely wouldn't hurt you, Kaede."

Luckily, before I could embarrass myself any further, we both heard a sound come from across the room. It was Ryoma, exiting from what looked like was a personal bathroom behind him. I shouldn't have been surprised that he was here; it was his own Lab, costumed tailored to Ultimate Talent. He pulled his hat down as he walked towards the center of the room, keeping to himself. 

"Oh, Ryoma," Kaede announced, realizing that he was now in the room. "I guess I should have figured that you would be here. You must be excited that there's a tennis court here, huh?"

"Hmph, I don't care," Ryoma retorted as he turned his head to the side. "I have nothing to do with tennis anymore."

"Wait, Ryoma," Kaede stuttered for a moment. "Are you serious? You're done with tennis?"

"There's no point in me playing tennis," Ryoma scoffed. "Besides, it was a long time ago. I should just forget about it, like everyone else." 

"No point?" Kaede questioned as she took a more confident stance. "But you're Ryoma Hoshi, the Ultimate Tennis Pro! I've heard stories about how many tournaments you've won and matches that you've played! You have to love the sport!" 

Kaede was definitely pursuing this further than I would have. By the look on his face I could tell that Ryoma did not want to talk about this. Not now, anyway. 

"It's pointless," he reiterated as he kept his gaze towards the tennis court. "Even if I escape from here, I'll just go straight to a different prison. So it'd be meaningless for someone like me to play tennis now..."

He was... He was lying. The sadness in his eyes while he looked at the tennis court was telling a different story. He wanted to play tennis, probably more than anything else in the world right now. I had never heard of Ryoma Hoshi before waking up in this school, but the others had told me stories about him. He was known for his incredible skills in tennis, but he turned to a life of crime instead. No, not just crime. 

Murder. 

For revenge, or so the others had told me. When we first woke up here, I remember Miu telling us that he killed a bunch of Mafia members with a steel tennis ball. If we're being honest, I was uneasy around Ryoma at first, knowing full well that he was a killer in a killing game. But once I heard he only killed the mafia after they killed his family, I understood him a little more. Don't get me wrong, what he did wasn't justified. Murder is wrong, no matter what. But he didn't kill in cold blood. 

"Um, Ryoma," Kaede started, breaking me free from my own thoughts. "Can we talk to you about something?"

We? I see Kaede didn't mind dragging me into things. 

"Hmph. Go ahead."

"It's about what happened the other day," Kaede continued. "When you and Rantaro were arguing in the cafeteria."

Arguing? Oh yeah, that's right. I guess Ryoma and I did get into some sort of argument in the cafeteria the other day. It all started because of the timer Monokuma put on us in order for the killing to start. With only a couple hours left until the deadline, and all of our deaths, Ryoma suggested we make a rash decision: Kill him and save ourselves. 

"I'll die so you all can survive," I remember him saying. "I have nothing to live for anyway, so no one would lose anything." 

I turned down his plan immediately, knowing full well that he meant every word of it. Just by looking into his eyes I could that he was a man with nothing left to lose. That could be dangerous, given the circumstances. It blew up from there when everyone else entered the conversation. In order to persuade him to see it my way, though, I had to lie to him.

"Alright, chill out," I remember telling him. "There's no need to off yourself so fast. I'm going to end this killing game, tonight." 

He believed me. They all did. At least enough to not do anything too drastic. Tsumugi did try to potentially set me up to kill me, but that was all circumstantial. A hunch, really. But the more i reflect on my time here, the more I realized just how many lies I've told already. What made it worst was the fact that Kaede kept trying to convince everyone to believe in me. I promise, all these lies will get us to our freedom. 

Geez, was I lying to myself at this point?"

"Yeah," I responded to Kaede. "I'm really sorry about that, Ryoma. I didn't mean to start a fight with ya. I just wanted to keep you from doing anything drastic." 

"It's fine," Ryoma said as he looked in my direction. "Maybe you were right, but someone still had to die."

Tsumugi. Maki. 

"Yeah."

"Something you said when you were fighting really stuck with me," Kaede continued, trying to change the subject. "Did... Did you really mean what you said? That you have nothing left to live for?" 

That's Kaede for you. She was always so straightforward. I'll have to hand it to her, you always knew what she was thinking. 

"Yeah." Ryoma paused for a moment, clearly thinking. "I meant it." 

"That can't be right, though!" Kaede retorted as she took a step forward. "Just think about once you'll get out! There's so much that..."

"Like I said, even if get out of here, they'll just throw me in another jail," Ryoma cut her off. "Even if I could walk free from all the bad things that I've done, there's no one on the outside waiting for me."

"But... You must have some..."

"Family?" Ryoma finished her sentence for her, but he never raised his tone towards us. This wasn't anger, but more like a harsh acceptance. "They're all dead. The Mafia killed 'em when I refused to throw a game I was supposed to lose. I thought I could even saved my girlfriend, but they found her too."

"Ryoma..."

It looked like everything I had heard about him from the others was true. Hell, they even killed his girlfriend, all because he didn't lose a game he was supposed to. From the sound of it, he probably blamed himself for it, too. All that guilt on your shoulders... I could relate. 

"What about a dog?" I asked, with the question flying out of my mouth before I could think about it. "Or some sort of pet?"

My reasoning for asking this was pretty thin, at best. If a mafia was aiming towards specific people, they probably wouldn't have the time to go after any pets. Evil people like that go for the people close to you. Just the people. I'd be lying if the question didn't come from a place in my heart, too. Growing up, I remember having a dog. Believe it or not, my dad bought a puppy for me, before all the business trips and maids... Before he changed into the type of father that didn't get along with his only son. But he bought me the runt of the litter, and boy was he small. My mother and I made sure he grew up strong, though we did baby the new puppy for quite some time. He helped my get through so many hard times growing up. He was my best friend. 

"I... I did have a cat," Ryoma admitted as she shifted his gaze to the left of us. "I had to give him away to an acquaintance, though. I couldn't take care of him while in jail." 

"See!" Kaede exclaimed as she gave me a nod. "You DO have someone waiting for you outside." 

"But I doubt he even remembers me," Ryoma answered. "He probably forgot all about me, just like the rest of the world should."

"No, there's no way your cat forget about you," I interjected almost immediately, speaking from experience. "When you have a best friend like that... You never forget each other. There are way too many good memories to just up and forget."

"I... I'm gonna go," Ryoma stated as he made his way to the door of the Lab. Surprisingly, Kaede didn't try to stop him. Maybe she thought we got through to him somehow. I wasn't so sure, but I knew he didn't want to spend anymore time here. I couldn't blame him. He just spent more time reflecting on himself than he wanted. 

"Rantaro," he called back to me as he opened the door to the exit. "You still have a ways to go."

Then he left, closing the door behind him. I wasn't sure what he meant exactly with his last statement. Maybe he meant that my people skills still needed some work. I would have to agree with him on that one. I was still new to this whole "try not to be as paranoid about dying" thing.

"Hey," Kaede playfully bumped on my side with her waist. "That was actually really sweet, what you said. How did you know that he had a cat?"

"Ah, lucky guess."

"Well I hope you meant what you said about not forgetting friends," she laughed. "I don't want you go around forgetting me." 

"Hahaha, don't worry about that," I reassured her as I turned my face to the side in an attempt to hid my red cheeks. "My memory may be pretty messed up, but I don't think I could forget you, Kaede." 

"Oh yeah, that's right," Kaede said with a hint of realization on her face. "Your memory! Have you remembered anything?"

"No, I haven't remember anything new yet." 

"Do you think the mastermind can erase our memories?" she asked me as she fidgeted slightly in place. 

"Hmmm," I thought for a moment. "Maybe, but why only take away MY memories? Everyone else here hasn't forgotten anything. I'm the only one."

"That's true," Kaede agreed as she placed her finger on her chin. "But what if they can? What if the mastermind makes us forget about each other?"

"I... I never thought about that before."

The mastermind was able to take the memories of my talent away, but were they able to take away memories of entire people from us? Could they take away all of my memories of my sisters? My mother? Kaede?

"Hey, I have an idea," I suggested as I played with one of the rings on my finger, removing it in the process. "Here, take this."

"A ring?" Kaede asked, the cheeks on her face growing slightly red as she looked at it. 

"Yeah, it's one of my rings," I chuckled as I put the ring in her palm. "This way, it'll be that much harder to forget about me if anything happens."

"Ohhhhhh, I think I see what you're saying," she answered as she examined my ring between her fingers. "That's a good idea! Here, then you should take this!"

She brought her hands to bangs on her forehead and shifted around for a second. Once she was done, she grabbed my hand with both of hers, then placed something in my palm.

"Your music note hairpin?"

"This is my favorite hairpin!" Kaede explained to me. "I don't expect you to wear it or anything, but you'll totally remember me when you'll see it. That way, no matter how many memories you lose, you'll always remember that the Piano Girl gave it to you."

"Hahaha," I let out a genuine laugh at her comment. "I don't think it'll look that great in my hair, but I'll definitely keep it on me, Piano Girl." 

"You better, Ring Guy."


	7. Daily Life: Bread Crumbs

Kaede and I made our way out of the Ryoma's Lab and worked our way down a new hallway that had recently appeared. We decided to stick together to investigate the rest of the school, even though I would have preferred to search the place alone. It would have been way easier to find clues if I was by myself, but I sure didn't mind Kaede's help. I found that I really enjoyed her company, and I couldn't get her off my mind sometimes when she wasn't around. It was... weird. 

"Hey, Rantaro," Kaede's voice echoed down the hallway. "Look!"

We stopped at the end of the hallway, and a strange looking door broke me out of my concentration. A door encased entirely of red felt blocked our path, and I could tell at first glance that it was an Ultimate Lab. 

"Looks like another Ultimate Lab," I spoke as I examined the outside of the door. "Unlike Ryoma's Lab, I can't tell which Ultimate Talent this Lab is for."

"There's only one way to find out!" Kaede raised both of her fists high and held that same confident expression that I was so fond of. 

Kaede put her hand on the doorknob and shifted forward, but she immediately noticed that something was wrong. She tried the open the door again, this time with more spunk. The same result happened. I could tell that frustrated her. She was looking forward to getting into that room. I couldn't blame her. These Labs had a certain allure to them. 

"Something wrong?"

"That's weird," she said as she looked at the doorknob. "It won't budge at all. It's like it's locked."

"Weeeeeeeeeeeell." Monokuma jumped in between the two of us. "That's because it is!"

"Monokuma!?" Kaede stepped back as she caught her breath. 

"For such a loud bear," I commented as I folded my arms, "you're really light on your feet."

"If you could hear me coming, then you wouldn't be surprised to see me!" Monokuma laughed, placing his paws on his stomach in the process. "But you seemed pretty stumped by this here door, huh?"

"You seem way too happy about this," I sighed. "I take it you know why this door is locked?"

"Of course I do, Randy!"

"Please stop calling me that."

"There are special rules that are in place here at the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles!" Monokuma explained as he danced around the locked door in front of us. "One of the rules is that if one of the Ultimate students enrolled in this school dies before they discover their Ultimate Lab, then that Lab will remain locked for the remainder of the semester!"

"So this means this Ultimate Lab belongs to either Maki or Tsumugi..." Kaede looked a little more defeated with her words when she remembered that there were originally fifteen of us at the start. "Who's Ultimate Lab is it?"

"This here beauty of a Lab belongs to the Ultimate Child Caregiver!"

"Then that means..."

"It's Maki's Lab," I finished her sentence, making the connection. "But because she's out of the game, her Ultimate Lab is off limits." 

"Ding! Ding! Ding!" Monokuma laughed. "Pretty boy is right! So if you want to see your Ultimate Lab, don't go dying on us. Bye now!"

Before Kaede or I could say any more, the annoying stuffed bear ran underneath my legs and disappeared around the corner of the hallway. The two of us stood in silence for a few moments, and I couldn't help but get lost in another thought that crossed my mind: What would happen if I died before I saw my Lab?

I already investigated two other Labs before this, and I still couldn't find mine. That meant that it was still hidden somewhere in this academy. What would happen if I never found out? What about if I died before I could see what was inside? Would my talent remain a mystery to not only myself, but everyone else? Would I just be a mystery to Kaede and the rest of my classmates? A riddled to be solved? 

All of these questions flooded my mind as the possibilities clutched my heart. If I died before I could find my Lab, the door will remain locked, and I'll be forgotten. Maybe I would just be a footnote to Kaede and the others. The only thing worse than not knowing your purpose in life was knowing that you would be forgotten once you died, just because there's so little about you. 

"Hey," Kaede leaned in towards me with a look of concern on her face, "are you okay? You're starting to look a little pale." 

"Yeah, yeah," I lied, trying my best to hide the fears that plagued my mind. "Just got a little dizzy, that's all. I'll be fine."

"Well then let's go outside for a little while," she suggested. "Some fresh air might help you feel better."

"Okay, okay." I gave up, a small smile planted on my face. "We can look for any new areas while we're out there, too." 

We walked downstairs and through the front door, and I could feel the fresh breeze brush against my face as I took my first few steps outside. I couldn't lie, the fresh air did start to calm my nerves, burying the existential crisis to the back of my mind. I had to keep my nerves under control, otherwise I could find myself in a situation I didn't want to be apart of. Keep a clear mind, Rantaro.

"You're starting to look better already," Kaede giggled as she walked to the courtyard. "You should take it easy sometimes. Don't feel like you have to handle everything alone."

"You're right," I chuckled as I shuffled along with her. "I couldn't sleep that well last night, but I might be able to get some rest tonight knowing that I can count on you from now on."

Before the conversation could go on for any longer, we both noticed a that the large set of doors located on the castle wall were now open, revealing another section of the outdoors that we had never seen before. 

"Hey, that's new," I pointed out as we both walked towards the door.

"That door was closed before," she began as she took the lead the way by walking a couple steps ahead of me. "This must be one of the new areas that Monokuma was talking about. Let's check it out!"

We walked through the doors and down a short path. I no time we found ourselves in a wide open space that had two drastically different buildings in the distance. 

"Look over there," I said as I glanced to the pink building to my right. "That kind of looks like a hotel over there, doesn't it?"

"You're right," Kaede agreed as she brought her gaze to the other building. "And that one is way more flashy. I wonder what's inside." 

"Only one way to find out."

"I have an idea," she said, stopping me before I could walk on ahead. "What if we split up and investigate both buildings?"

"You wanna split up?" I asked confused. She had been rather keen on sticking together not too long ago. 

"It would save a lot more time that way," Kaede explained to me with one of her famous soft smiles. "I can explore one place, and you can explore the other. After we're done, we can meet back up and tell the other what they found."

"Not too bad," I chuckled as I placed my hand on my chin. "Okay, sounds good to me. I'll take the building on the right, then."

We smiled at each for a second, and then we went our separate ways. I followed the path to the right, and made my way closer to the strange looking building. When Kaede first made the suggestion that we split up, I was a tad confused. But after I thought about it for a moment, I realized that it wasn't such a bad idea for myself. Monokuma told me that there were clues hidden around the school that were specifically meant for my eyes. Even though I liked Kaede's company, it would be way easier for me to find these clues on my own and without having to worry about her. 

So much for trusting other people, eh, Rantaro? 

Once I opened the door, I found myself in what looked to be some sort hotel lobby. The decor of the room was a tacky pink color, with heart patterns strewn all around. The front desk was empty, and the only other door that was in the room was one the lead to an fancy looking elevator. Not to mention that I wasn't alone here.

"What the hell are you doin' here, Runstaro." 

"Hey, Miu," I greeted her, as it was clear that she wasn't expecting anyone else to come here. "I see you're in a... good mood."

"I saw that the door was open so I came here lookin' to see what this place was," Miu huffed as she turned her head away from me to look around the room. "I have no fuckin' clue where we are."

"Looks like a hotel to me," I answered as I walked up to the front desk. 

"Oh, so you know what a hotel looks like?" she questioned as she followed uncomfortably close behind me. "I hear stories all the time about what happens in hotel rooms. What kind of weird shit are you into?"

"Nothing like that, " I reassured her as I brought my attention to the elevator. "I just spent a long time traveling before, so I'm no stranger to checking into hotel rooms for a night."   
I stood in the elevator and gestured to the single button on the panel. "Going up?"

She scoffed as she folded her arms, but she took me up on my offer and walked into the elevator with me. I pressed the only only button available, and the doors suddenly closed in front of us. I could feel the movement of the elevator all around me, and I could tell we were making our way up. Since there was only one button on the panel, I couldn't pick any individual floor. I had no idea where this elevator was taking us, but we would find out soon. 

"Don't get any funny ideas while we're up there," Miu ordered in an aggressive tone, but her cheeks turned a slight shade of red when she said it. "Just because we're in a hotel doesn't mean you'll get lucky with this beautiful, blonde genius.  
"  
"Wouldn't think of it," I reassured her as I kept looking forward. "People tend to think I'm kind of sleazy because of the way I look, but I'm not that type of guy." 

I guess the way I looked gave that impression to some people. 

"You didn't recognize that this place was a hotel, though," I pointed out to her. "You don't get out much, do you?"

"What's that supposed to mean!" Miu turned in my direction and poked me in the chest with her finger.

"Sorry, that came out a lot meaner than I meant it," I apologized as I waved my hands in a playful way. "It just caught me by surprise that you of all people haven't traveled that much. I mean, with all your inventions and all, I figured you would be going all around the world to sell them off." 

"Ha, people come up me all the time for my inventions," Miu said confidently, and I could see the pride in her face. "They know genius when they see it, and I give 'em away for cheap."

"Huh, that's surprising," I added, as I was taken aback slightly by her generosity. "I never would've pegged you as someone who gives her ideas away for free. Why don't you charge more for 'em? I'm sure you would get a quick buck or two from them." 

"Hahaha!" Her snarky laugh filled the small elevator. "I don't give a shit about the money. I have so many ideas for inventions floatin' around in my head, I don't feel like getting tied down to just one for too long. You know how long it takes to patent one of those babies? I could make TEN more gadgets in that time! That's why I make 'em and go to the next one."

"You're pretty dedicated."

"I am pretty gorgeous, aren't I?"

"I didn't say that, but okay."

"I can't tell what's bigger: my brains or my chest!" She let out one of her confident laughs again. "My inventions are gonna change the world. I'm way too important to just make some money from them."

"Geez, your talent is beyond understanding for an ordinary guy like me," I responded as I placed my hands on my waist for a moment and sighed. "But I understand your thought process. You like to be the one on top."

"On top???" Miu's knees shook slightly as she leaned into the corner of the elevator. Her face turned a shade of red I didn't know existed, and a bead of sweat rolled down her face. I couldn't tell if she was in pain or if it was something else... 

"Sorry," I laughed, trying to remedy the situation. "I was trying to make a joke."

Luckily, the doors opened up immediately after my joke landed, and I could leave the situation behind me. Ahead of me, I could see a spacious room filled with various objects that I had never seen before. A giant circular bed was located towards the center of the room, with an even bigger heart headboard right behind it. Two plastic horses spun around the bed, like a carousal of some kind. The tacky lights mixed with the fluorescent pink tint of the room gave me an uncomfortable vibe. 

"Well this room sure is unique," I commented as I took a step out of the elevator and into the room. The scent of cheap perfume flooded my nostrils, to the point where it was almost distracting. My eyes took a minute to adjust to the odd lighting of the room. They really went all in with the "dark, seedy hotel" look.

"What the hell is this room for?" Miu coughed, probably from the perfume. "I can barely fuckin' breathe in here."

I noticed that Miu's attention shifted immediately to the giant X in the corner for the room. From what I could tell there were straps on each end of the X, presumably to hold someone in place. I didn't want to know what it was for, but the look on Miu's face gave me the idea that she knew exactly what to do with it. I was just going to ignore that for now. 

"Is it getting hot in here?" Miu asked as she fanned herself with her hands. Her face was turning that familiar shade of pink and red, and she tugged a the bottom of her shirt. "If this keeps up, I'm gonna have to take off my shirt."

"No, no, no," I reassured her as I turned my head away from her, and I could feel a weird heat on my cheeks. "No need for that just yet. Maybe we can open up a window or somethin'." 

"I see things are getting a little hot n' heavy." Monokuma's voice echoed from behind us, startling us both in the process. "You two already found this special place!"

"Monokuma?" I sighed in disappointment. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to explain this super-secret, super-special room!" He exclaimed as he jumped up and down, almost as if he would die from the anticipation any minute now. It's no surprise that you found this room, though. A healthy teenager's brain is supposed to be obsessed with lust and everything lewd!"

"L-lewd!?!" Miu knees started to buckle at the mere mention of the word.

Maybe she wasn't the best person to be with right now to hear this information. 

"Just... Ah..." I choose my words carefully. "Keep going with your explanation. What's this room?"

"This is the Love Suit Hotel!" Monokuma answered gleefully. "Too bad you can't use this room just yet, though! You'll need a special key in order to come here and clear out those carnal desires! If you come here with the key, you'll meet with another person that was also invited. Of course you'll be part of that person's fantasy. The other person that was invited will see you as their 'ideal' partner, and they won't be able to keep their hands off of ya! It's kind of like a dream."

"A room that makes it visitors fall into a real-life dream?" I echoed back with a hand on my chin. "Sounds like something out of a book."

"I've read those kind of books before," Miu added as she continued to fan herself with his hands. 

"Don't worry, you two." Monokuma sneered as he placed his hands behind his back, hinting that he was hiding something. "I brought a key with me so you two could give this room a test drive."

"W-wait, what?" I stuttered as I waved my hands in surprise. "Hold on a second."

"Uggghhhhhhh," Miu groaned as she took a couple steps back. "I-I'm not ready. At least let me grab some of my inventions that I've made just in case something like this would happen." 

Before either Monokuma or myself could say anything back, Miu sprinted past us and towards the elevator. Once inside she hurriedly mashed the single button on panel of the elevator, which shut the doors and sent her down to the lobby. Just like that, it was just Monokuma and I standing in the hotel room. 

"Geez, I was just joking, hahaha." Monokuma let out a belly laugh as he glared at me. "Now that she's gone, maybe you should check around this room carefully, Randy. There may be something in here that's for your eyes only." 

"What is that supposed to mean?" 

"Puhuhuhu," Monokuma snickered. "That's for you to find out."

And before I could say anything else, Monokuma dashed through a curtain in the room. I quickly chased after him and pushed the curtains aside, but, as expected, there was nothing there. He was gone. For such an annoying stuffed animal, he sure knew how to leave without a trace. At least I was alone again. Monokuma had given me a hint, basically outright telling me that there was a clue here that was left for me. 

Well, here goes nothing. 

I gazed back into the room, trying my best to ignore the blinding lights above me. I instinctively went towards the enormous bed and knelt down. I was getting this odd inclination to inspect between the bed and the bed frame. I lifted up the mattress and peered through the opening. Nothing. I should have guessed that the mastermind wouldn't hide an important clue in such an obvious spot. 

I had to think a little more outside the box. Or maybe inside was more accurate. After pushing the mattress slightly to the side so it was out of my way, I brought my hand to one of the corners of the bed frame, where it met the headboard. I noticed that there was a small space in between, and I started to feel around. I didn't find anything at first, but I was known for my persistence. Or some would call it stubbornness. 

There. I felt something. Was that... A button? Without giving it much thought, I pressed it down and waited for something to happen. The heart shaped headboard shook slightly, and I could hear what sounded like gears turning. I looked down, and I could see that the headboard was moving backwards, and the gap between the frame and headboard was getting bigger. The button revealed a secret compartment, and I was almost impressed that I actually found it. But that surge of satisfaction didn't last long once I noticed how empty the space was. Sure, it was a large compartment, but it was almost completely empty. 

Almost.

"What's this?" I said out loud as I reached in and picked up what looked like a folded up sheet of paper. "A piece of paper?"

I held up the piece of paper up towards the light. The folds were messy, like someone was trying to hide it in a hurry. I carefully unfolded it, making sure not to tear any of its sides as I did it. What I saw sent a surprise jolt of shock into my body. It was...

Me.

Or at least I saw a picture of myself at the top left hand corner of the paper. The top of page held the title "Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles," which was what Monokuma had once called this place. Underneath my picture were various bits of information. It listed my name, age, and all of the previous schools that I had attended throughout my life. Since I traveled so often, the list was rather extensive, more so than the normal high school student. But there was a category that caught my attention instantly. 

Ultimate Talent. 

My eyes wavered over to the next column, trying to find the answer that haunted me as soon as I woke up in this school, but it was just as I expected. A large black blemish ran across what would have been my Ultimate Talent. I had already seen the ridged edges on the left side of the paper, as if someone had ripped this page out of a book of some kind. This convenient black mark by my Talent sealed my suspicions that somebody had tampered with this. I knew it had to be the mastermind, but why hide it here of all places, and then give me hint in order to find it? What would the mastermind gain from this? I knew from the start that finding these answers wasn't going to be easy.

Before I folded the paper back up, there was another column of my information that caught my eye. Or maybe it's better to say that the lack of information seized my attention. This category was marked as "Class Number," but the number next to it was redacted, just like my Ultimate Talent. What did it mean by Class Number? Sure, this place was a a school, but... Is it possible that students actually went here before the mastermind decided it would be a setting for a killing game? 

I guess I never thought about that before. While there were newer sections of the school that looked like they were recently built, there were plenty of sections of the school that were overgrown with weeds and crumbling from time. Was this a working school before, that real students actually attended? If it was, then what happened to it before the mastermind found it? 

There was an even bigger question that plagued my mind: Why did I have a profile for this school? I've never seen this place before, let alone attend it when it was in its prime. I was so busy trying to outfox the mastermind that I never thought about the school. How integral was it to win this game? Was it another secret that I would have to uncover just to make it out alive? 

With more questions then answers, I stood up and slid the paper into my pocket. Should I show this to Kaede? No, not yet. What could I even say? "Sorry, the mastermind keeps leaving a trail of bread crumbs specially meant for me and no one else," wasn't an acceptable answer. It would just draw a huge target on my back. If someone were to decide to kill to get out of this place, I would become a prime target. I was already paranoid about my own safety after I performed so well in the last class trial. Go after the guy that not only was good at investigating murder, but also the mastermind seems to favor. Pretty simple strategy. It's what I would do if I desired to be the next blackened. But that option wasn't even on the table. Murder is wrong, no matter what. Even if it guaranteed your own safety. How could someone willingly kill someone else, leaving them to be forgotten by everyone else? It was so cruel. 

I shook my head abruptly, trying to clear my mind from the paranoia that was haunting me. I looked down at my handiwork, and I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride in my deductions, though. I was able to find the clue in this room. Huh, maybe Kaede was right; I did seem to have a natural talent for this kind of stuff. There was a chance that I was the Ultimate Detective.

Ha, yeah right. Let's try not to get too cocky there, Rantaro.


End file.
